


The Spark Within

by BeccaAnne814



Series: Steve Rogers x Reader Series [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Memory Loss, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-04-04 22:03:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 76,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14029743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccaAnne814/pseuds/BeccaAnne814
Summary: It's your typical love story - guy meets girl, guy falls in love with girl - all except for one minor detail - girl hates guy.  He's not the type to give up without a fight, but neither is she.  Is there a way the two of them can both win this game?





	1. Chapter 1

"He's back," Kyle whispered in a sing-song voice as she walked into the room.

YN groaned as she got up and peeked out from behind the curtain separating the employees' lounge from the rest of the bookstore.

Kyle wiggled her eyebrows at her coworker. "That's what – three times this week? It's a new record."

"Why can't he take a hint and leave me alone?" YN asked as she pulled the curtain closed and banged her head against the wall.

Kyle shook her head in annoyance. "I just don't get you, YN. Any other woman in the world would kill to have him notice her, and you act like he's the pimply-faced kid from the Chess Club."

YN took another glance into the bookstore, hoping that he might have magically disappeared – no such luck. "He may not look like the pimply-faced kid from Chess Club, but that's pretty much his personality type. Everyone thinks that just because looks like Adonis, he's cool, but he's one of the biggest nerds I've ever met. You know that's not my type."

Kyle pursed her lips as she gave YN a dirty look. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. You prefer the bad boy, but look where that's gotten you. Maybe you should give the nice, wholesome, boy-next-door a chance – he might surprise you."

When he rang the little bell on the counter, Kyle gave YN a little shove. She almost tripped over her own two feet as she tried to untangle herself from the curtain. She was going to kill Kyle once they were alone again.

Plastering a fake smile on her face, she walked up to the counter. "Hello, Captain Rogers. What can I help you with today?"

Steve's face broke out into a wide smile as YN started walking his way. "I finished that last series you gave me to read and I'm here for some more recommendations. And please call me Steve."

"You finished all three books in the _Divergent_ trilogy in two days?" she asked in disbelief.

"It's been a slow week?" he answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You know," she began, "I'm sure Mr. Stark can get you set up with an eReader so you don't have to come down to the bookshop every few days."

"He did," Steve told her with a grimace. "Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the feel of a real book in my hands. There's something about the weight of it that comforts me. You know what I mean?"

His explanation had her pausing for a moment. He'd just described the reason why she'd always loved books – why she'd chosen to study literature in college and then go to work in a bookshop after graduation. She hated that she had anything in common with him – it was as though he'd stolen something special from her and it made her dislike him even more.

"Of course you don't know what I mean," he said when she hadn't replied to his question. "You can take the man out of the forties, but you can't take the forties out of the man."

"I guess so," she said, knowing that she had to pretend to be nice to him.

"So, YN, I was wondering," he began as his face started to slowly turn red. "I mean, I thought it would be nice - if you wanted to, of course – to get a cup of. . ."

"I think I have the perfect series for you to try next, Captain Rogers," she interrupted, not wanting him to finish his question.

"Coffee?" he whispered in defeat to her retreating back.

"I like coffee," Kyle said as she walked up next to him.

"But she doesn't?"

Kyle gave him a sympathetic look. "She likes her coffee like she likes her men – hot and bitter."

"You're telling me I'm not her type?" Steve asked, finally understanding YN a little better.

"You're a Caramel Iced Americano," Kyle explained. "And she's more of an espresso girl."

Steve's shoulders slumped a bit as he gazed longingly at YN from over the stacks of books. She was completely oblivious to the conversation he was having with her coworker and he took a moment to watch her unobserved. He'd been coming into the bookshop every few days for the past month hoping to work up the nerve to ask her out. Now it looked like he didn't stand a chance with her.

YN came back with a set of three books and held them out for Steve to take. "These are _The_ _Hunger_ _Games_ , you should like them."

"I'm sure I will," he told her with a sad smile.

She paid no attention to his sudden change in mood as she walked back behind the counter to ring up his purchases. He sighed and turned to follow her.

"That'll be $36.81," she told him as she put the books in a bag for him and swiped his credit card. "Thank you for visiting The Shop Around the Corner."

"Thank you, YN," Steve said as he took the bag and turned to walk out the door.

YN waited until he'd left and then turned on her friend. "Why do you always try to push me into going out with him? I've told you that I'm not interested, and I'm not about to change my mind anytime soon."

"I just think you should give the guy a chance," Kyle explained as YN began to walk back into the employee's lounge. "He's such a nice guy and he seems to really like you. I can't remember the last time you even went on a date."

YN sprawled out on the threadbare loveseat in the back of the room. "I don't date because I have better things to do."

"Like what? Sit at home and read?"

YN shook her head and grabbed the book she was currently reading, completely ignoring Kyle. When the bell on the counter chimed, she never bothered looking up, knowing that her coworker would take care of the customer.

 

She thought about Steve Rogers' visit to the bookstore the entire walk back to her apartment. She wasn't jaded enough that she couldn't admit he was one of the best looking men she'd ever laid eyes on, but she knew they came from different worlds. There was absolutely no way the two of them could ever work, so why even try?

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she fitted her key into the outer door of her apartment building. It was a ramshackle building that looked as though it was built at the turn of the century – a few centuries ago. It only had five floors and she lived on the top. There was no working elevator, and there were times that she hated the climb to her apartment, but she didn't have to worry about loud neighbors above her, so that was a plus.

Once she'd unlocked her door and hung her coat on the rack, she finally felt like she could breath again. This place was small, but it was cozy. She looked around the tiny apartment before walking toward the bookshelf along the wall. Her fingers grazed over the titles until she found the one she was looking for, _The Count of Monte Cristo_ , by Alexandre Dumas.

When she pulled on the spine, a soft click could be heard behind the wall. She took a step back as the bookcase slid to the side to reveal a doorway. As she walked through the opening in the wall, lights around the room beyond automatically came on.

She stood still for a moment, admiring the ultra-modern space that took up the rest of the supposedly condemned fifth floor. It was all one large open room with a bathroom tucked away behind the kitchen on the right. The floors were rustic gray hardwood with large area rugs a few shades lighter than the floors under the larger pieces of furniture. The walls and all of the furniture were stark white with electric blue accent pillows and pieces of art scattered throughout.

The apartment behind her was just for show on the rare occasions Kyle came over for a movie night, but the loft in which she now stood was where she actually lived. No one she knew had ever seen this space, or knew of its existence, and she was perfectly happy to keep it that way.

The bookcase slid back into place behind her and she began to walk toward the raised dais that served as her bedroom. She quickly doffed the clothes she'd worn for her shift at the bookshop. Opening the drawer of the dresser, she pulled out a set of lacy, black underwear and then walked to the armoire to choose a dress for the evening. Pulling out a skintight black halter, she pulled it over her head and did a little shimmy to get it to slide over her hips. Twisting to the left and right, she admired the way the slinky material clung to all her curves.

She then took a seat at the small vanity and worked on her makeup for a bit. Within a few minutes, she was completely unrecognizable from the meek woman that sold books in downtown Manhattan, but she wasn't finished just yet. Pulling the long, black wig from its stand next to the mirror, she carefully slid it into place, making sure it looked perfect. Dropping her lipstick into the clutch on the edge of the vanity, she stood and made her way to the shoe rack to finish her outfit for the evening.

Once she was ready, she texted her private driver and made her way to the service elevator that she'd commandeered for her own private use. The rest of the tenants in the building thought it was permanently out of order, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. By the time she'd ridden down to the basement, Philipe was pulling up in the sporty Mercedes she'd bought herself for her birthday last year. She gave him the address of the club she'd chosen to go to tonight as she slid into the backseat.

It wasn't a long drive to the club, but she had just enough time to do a little more research on the man she intended to meet tonight. She always believed in being prepared, especially when there were so many variables to consider.

"I'll text you when I'm ready to return home," she told Philipe as she slid out of the car.

All eyes were on her as she made her way straight to the entrance, forgoing the long line that wrapped around the block. The bouncer at the door stepped aside to let her by.

The music was pulsing around her and she paused for a moment to let her eyes adjust. After a quick scan of the room, she saw the man she'd been researching. Not ready to make her move on Henri Bernard just yet, she made her way to the bar for a drink.

Knowing it would be better to allow him to approach her, she ordered her drink and took it with her to the dance floor. It wasn't hard to find a man willing to dance with her, and she had no problem using him shamelessly to further her own objectives. She kept one eye on the slightly overweight, balding man in the corner as she twisted and turned on the dance floor, trying to get him to notice her.

She'd been out on the floor for about twenty minutes when a tall man in an expensive suit approached her. She knew from his accent and the ear piece he was wearing that he was a member of Bernard's security detail.

"Mr. Bernard has requested that you join him in the VIP lounge," the man said.

YN handed her drink to the man she'd been dancing with and began to follow the security guard, completely oblivious to the confused look on her partner's face. She'd gotten the invitation she'd hoped for, and now it was time to get to work.

Bernard gave her a once over that had her skin crawling, but she'd deliberately picked out this look to appeal to his known type. This kind of treatment was all apart of the job, even if it did make her want to kill the sleazy old perverts she had to put up with.

"You're much too pretty to be mingling with the lower class out there," he told her in a thick French accent as he gestured toward the dance floor with his glass of Brandy.

She pretended to be flattered by his comment, and gave him a sheepish smile that had a gleam forming in his eyes. He truly thought that line worked on women – well, maybe women with less self-worth than she possessed.

"Thank you, Mr. Bernard," she told him as he patted the bench beside him for her to sit. The thought of being close to this man was abhorrent, but she kept reminding herself to stay focused.

"Please call me Henri," he told her as she sat beside him and he draped an arm around her shoulder.

"Henri," she repeated, smiling up at him through her revulsion.

"And what do I call you, ma cheri?" he asked as his fingers began stroking up and down the bare skin of her arm.

"Sydney," she told him with a shy smile. "My name is Sydney Cartwright."

Like all self-important men, he began to tell her about what he did for a living – thinking she would be impressed with his success and fortune. She pretended to know nothing about his investment firm, and he played right into her hands. Within an hour, he'd willingly told her everything she needed to know.

Ready to leave, but knowing that he had no intention of letting her go until he was finished with her, she slipped her hand into her clutch and pulled out the small vial she kept hidden in the lining for this very reason. Slipping off the stopper and palming the vial, she leaned over to whisper some nonsense in his ear as she tipped the contents into his drink. It wasn't deadly, but within twenty minutes, he'd start to experience some digestive issues that would render him incapable of continuing his evening.

Like clockwork, she started to notice him grimacing and grasping his stomach. Putting on an act of concern, she called for his security guard. "Henri's not feeling well. I think there's something wrong."

"Mr. Bernard, are you okay?" the security guard asked, his expression becoming worried.

YN was pretty sure he wasn't as concerned with Bernard's health as he was with keeping his job. If something untoward happened to the billionaire on his watch, his job – not to mention his life – would be on the line.

Partly because she didn't want the man to die because of her and partly because she wanted to cover her tracks, she came up with an excuse to save them both. "Do you think it could've been the fried calamari he ordered? I'm allergic to shellfish, so I didn't eat any of it."

The security guard looked down at the half-eaten appetizer and seized upon the golden opportunity she'd handed him. "You're probably right, Ms. Cartwright. I should probably get Mr. Bernard home and call his doctor to check him out."

Bernard made a move to stop her from leaving, but the pain in his gut had left him gasping for air. "I'm sorry you've taken ill, Henri. Maybe we can meet up again sometime later when you're feeling better."

His security guard didn't give him time to answer as he pulled him to his feet and ushered him toward the back door of the club. YN watched the two men and waited until they were out of sight before she grabbed a napkin and carefully picked up Henri's half-finished glass of Brandy. Tipping the contents onto the plate of calamari, she then slipped the glass into her clutch and made her way to the entrance of the club.

She texted Philipe as she walked across the dance floor. Her plan had worked perfectly, and she was ready to go home. Phase two would have to wait until tomorrow. She had the early shift at the bookshop and she was too exhausted to do anything else tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 1 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! It's been a while since I've written a canon story for Steve, and I felt like he was being neglected. . . I've had this idea swimming around in my head since May of last year, so it feels good to finally get it written. What do you think of the dynamic between the Reader and Steve so far? What did you think of her transformation at the end? Who do you think she is? I look forward to your comments!_


	2. Chapter 2

Working the early shift at the bookshop meant that she got to leave in the early afternoon, and that worked out perfectly for YN's plans for the evening. Once she'd gotten back to her apartment, she'd immediately gone to work on Phase two.

She needed to wait until the cover of darkness to implement her plan, so she had a few hours to finish up her research. Booting up her computer she hacked into the county clerk's office to find the blueprints for Bernard's building. Once she had the digital schematics uploaded, she switched to a different monitor and began hacking into his security feed. Comparing the blueprints to what she could see on the security cameras, she was able to find the secret room he'd bragged about the previous night. This is where all of the illegal activities took place, and it was exactly where she needed to get to tonight.

Taking a few minutes to study the layout and commit it to memory, she switched over to the Trojan Horse virus she'd spent the past few years writing and perfecting. This wasn't the first time she'd done something like this, but Bernard's firm was the largest operation she'd attempted to take down since she'd first begun her quest to stop men like him from preying on the innocent. She knew she only had a small window of opportunity, and if she wanted to succeed, she'd need to be prepared for when her greatest nemesis inevitably showed up to try and stop her. Just thinking about the insufferable man set her on edge.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she forced herself to focus on the job, not the obstacles that might stand in her way. Pulling up a map of the city, she began to outline the route she would need to take to get her from her apartment to his offices ten blocks uptown. Once she'd memorized her route, she copied the virus onto a small thumb drive and looked over her shoulder to see the sky beginning to darken. 

Show time.

In the years since she'd begun her crusade, she'd been forced to adopt different personas to further her objectives. YN YLN was the identity she'd created for herself so that she could lead a somewhat normal life, and to keep her nemesis from discovering her true identity. Sydney Cartwright was nothing more than a spoiled little rich girl who spent too much time partying, which allowed sleazy old men to think she was an airhead who didn't understand of word of what they said when they bragged to her about their illegal operations. The persona she needed tonight was far more powerful, and far more dangerous than either of her others, and she only allowed this one to come out to play whenever the stakes were at their highest.

Pulling on the black catsuit, she studied herself in the mirror. There was something about putting on this outfit that gave her the confidence she needed to face the insurmountable odds against her. Grabbing the thumb drive from the computer, she tucked it away into one of the discreet cargo pockets on her thigh and looked out the window one last time. Deeming it dark enough to begin, she walked to the spiral staircase in the corner. Quickly ascending, she pushed open the trap door that led to the roof. Taking a moment to look out over the impressive New York skyline, a devious smile spread across her face and she headed to the edge of the building.

Silently thanking Daddy for all of the gymnastic lessons he'd insisted she take as a child, she easily leapt from her building to the roof of the one next door. The late spring night still had a bit of a nip in the air, but the cold bite of the wind against her face only invigorated her as she effortlessly bounded from rooftop to rooftop.

When she'd gotten to the building next to Bernard's, she'd paused for a moment to not only catch her breath, but to scope out the rooftop a little better. He'd had a security camera mounted by the door leading into the building, but she wasn't sure if there would be any guards patrolling once the building was locked down for the night.

After twenty minutes with no movement, she headed toward the southeast corner of the building – well out of sight of the security camera. Gracefully landing on the rooftop, she quickly found cover behind one of the HVAC units. It never hurt to be overly cautious.

Tiptoeing her way to the door, she kept one ear open for sounds of someone approaching and one eye glued to the ground in case there were motion sensors that she might inadvertently trip and give away her position. Her hopes began to soar as she traversed the roof with no impediments. Tonight might actually go as planned.

She leaned back against the wall and peered around the corner to find the position of the security camera. Rubbing her fingers together, she allowed her third, and most dangerous persona to come forth. She could feel the electricity flow from the center of her body out through her extremities until arcs of blue light began to bounce back and forth between her fingers. The sensation of allowing Volt to manifest was a heady one that she enjoyed probably more than she should.

Although she couldn't feel it, she knew that her eyes had turned the same shade of blue as the electric currents emanating from her fingers. Her hair would now also be that same electrifying blue and portions of her skin would take on the bluish tinge that helped disguise her identity from those that would try to stop her. 

Not wanting to waste any more time, she aimed a bolt of electricity at the camera and it gave off a satisfying hiss as the circuits within it began to melt. Moving confidently now that she knew she wouldn't be detected, she faced the door and laid her hand on the keypad. She could use the electricity flowing within her to cause irreparable damage, or she could wield it like a tool to make electronics do her bidding. Most of the time, she used the gentler approach, just in case there were safeguards set in place to prevent sabotage.

When the light on the keypad turned from red to green, and she heard the audible click of the door unlocking, she allowed a self-satisfied smile to spread across her face. She slowly opened the door and slipped inside the dimly lit stairwell. Soundlessly descending the stairs, she headed toward the floor that housed the security center. Her first order of business would be to completely dismantle the security system so that she could move freely within the building.

The halls of the deserted office building were quiet, and the guards made enough noise walking their routes that she had plenty of time to duck into empty offices and wait until they'd passed her by. Knowing where the cameras were placed in the halls allowed her to stay hidden in the blind spots until she was able to reach the security center. 

She used her powers to unlock the door and quietly slipped in. The guard behind the desk monitoring the video feeds had his feet propped up and was playing on his phone, so he was easy to take out. A short burst of electricity rendered him unconscious within seconds and YN carefully eased his head back against the back of the chair so that he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. She may be here to wreak havoc on Bernard's illegal enterprise, but it didn't mean innocent men who were only doing their jobs had to suffer for it.

Once the guard was incapacitated, she turned her attention to the system. She recognized it as one she'd dealt with before, so it only took a few seconds for her to completely disable it. She waited for a few moments to see if there was a backup system she might have missed, but when the screens stayed dark, she exited the security center and quickly made her way to the secret room that housed the servers she'd come here to infect with her virus.

The guards patrolling the halls had no idea that anything was amiss, but they were still a nuisance to avoid. She knew she could have easily rendered them all unconscious like the one in the security center, but she wanted to draw as little attention to herself as possible, and leaving behind a trail of unconscious men in her wake would actually hinder her more than help her.

With the security system down, the door to the secret room was unlocked. She let herself in and took a moment to admire the elaborate rows of servers that Bernard used to run his illegal operation. She had to give him credit – he'd managed to stay off of everyone's radar for years, but outing men like him was her main objective, so he'd eventually raised some red flags and she'd zeroed in on him.

She'd retrieved the thumb drive from her pocket and was currently installing her virus when she heard his voice – that voice that grated at her nerves and sent chills down her spine.

"Stop right there," her nemesis demanded.

She didn't turn around, but instead continued what she'd been doing. The virus was ninety-five percent loaded, and she intended to let it finish installing before she dealt with him. When it had completely uploaded, she shot a burst of electricity toward him to distract him from seeing her retrieve the thumb drive and slip it back into her pocket. So far, he hadn't figured out what she was doing when she broke into these companies, and she wanted to keep it that way.

She wasn't surprised that he'd blocked her attack – they'd been playing this game for some time now and they'd developed a sort of rhythm with one another. If he'd been anyone else, she might have admired him for being able to keep up with her, but he was the thorn in her side that refused to go away.

"It's time to stop this, Volt," he said, his voice full of authority as he dodged another burst of electricity.

She gave the tall blond decked out in red, white, and blue a sly smirk as she flitted between the rows of servers. "Never, my dear Captain."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 2 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! Now we've learned that the Reader has not one, but two secret identities! Plot twist! I added a picture of Illyria from Angel because I used her look as inspiration for Volt - you can obviously imagine her looking any way you want, but I just thought it would help to see what I meant by only parts of her skin taking on a bluish tinge. Anyway, back to the story! Now we finally learn why the Reader is so hostile toward Steve, but the real question remains. . .is she a villain, or just a misunderstood hero? I look forward to your comments!_


	3. Chapter 3

"Keep her distracted," Tony said to Steve through the comms as he moved into position.

"What do you think I've been doing for the last few minutes?" Steve barked back at the billionaire. "Hurry up before one of her blasts barbecues me."

"Almost ready," Tony told him as he lined up Volt in his sights and took aim.

"Who are you talking to?" she asked Steve as she sent another burst of electricity toward the superhero. "Please don't tell me you brought your boyfriend along with you?"

"Brace yourself," Tony said to Steve as he fired the modified EMP toward Volt's back.

Feeling the current of electricity moving toward her, she quickly turned around and raised her hands. A bubble of blue electricity shot forth from her hands completely absorbing the EMP that had been rapidly heading her way. Turning the orb of electricity in her hands, she studied the modified EMP that Stark had designed specifically for her. Using her powers, she made a few modifications of her own and in one swift motion, sent it racing back toward the billionaire.

"Uh oh," Tony said, just moments before the blast hit him in the center of his chest.

The room exploded in a shower of sparks as the EMP disabled all the electronics around them, casting them all in a sea of darkness, save for the eerie blue glow that emanated from her. Walking toward Stark, YN was pleased to see that her hastily rendered modifications had worked perfectly, and he was immobilized within his own suit.

She could hear him calling out for his AI, but it was no use – his suit was nothing more than a metal straight jacket right now. Leaning down, she plucked the face plate from his helmet and smirked down at him. "Did you really think that was going to work?"

"Worth a shot, Sparky," he said, refusing to allow his predicament to curb his sarcastic wit.

Her face morphed from one of slight amusement to one of murderous rage. "My name is Volt."

"Aw, don't like your new nickname?" Tony smirked. "The media sure does love it."

YN clenched her hands into fists as she fought the urge to unleash the full force of her power onto the helpless man. Ever since he'd dubbed her "Sparky" in a press conference a few weeks ago, the media had latched onto the name and refused to refer to her as Volt any longer. She knew he'd orchestrated the whole thing to try to push her into losing her temper and making a mistake, so she'd made a point of tamping down her anger and staying focused on her objective. It was easy to ignore the media, but hearing it straight from him, though, was like adding fuel to an already raging fire.

"Anytime, Cap," Tony yelled as he lay helpless beneath her.

Horrified that she'd allowed herself to become vulnerable to an attack from behind, she swiveled around expecting to find Steve right on top of her. When she saw that no one was there, she became wary. She quickly pulled the electricity back within her so that she was no longer a walking beacon of light as she carefully made her way back through the row of fried servers to where she'd last seen Steve.

Rounding the corner, she saw him laying immobile on the ground. Without thinking, she fell to her knees and laid her hand along his neck, desperately searching for a pulse. She wasn't sure why she cared so much, but when she felt the slow, steady beat beneath her fingers, she let out a sigh of relief. Not dead, just unconscious.

She quickly rose and brought forth her powers again. She wasn't taking any chances, just in case Stark had brought more of his team to try bring her down. Slipping through the door, she was shocked to see that the hallway beyond was as dark as the room she'd just left. Stark's EMP had been more powerful than she'd realized, or maybe she'd been the one to amp it up a bit. Either way, it appeared as if the power grid for the entire building had been taken out.

As she made her way through the halls, she saw one unconscious guard after the other. She'd stopped at the first few to make sure they were all still alive, and once she was convinced that everyone had just been knocked out, she headed toward the stairs leading to the roof. The sooner she was out of this building, the better. They would have the security system back up and running soon, and she didn't want to be caught in the building when they did. Her virus was fully embedded into the system, so once they got it rebooted, it would run undetected in the background and Bernard would be ruined in a matter of weeks.

Reaching the door to the roof, she willed the electricity flowing freely throughout her to converge once more deep within her. With the building shrouded in darkness, she didn't want to draw any attention to herself as she made her getaway.

By the time she'd landed back on the roof of her building, she was exhausted. The physical exertion was enough to tire most normal people, but it was the use of her powers that truly drained her. As long as the electricity stayed within her, she was fine, but the more she used at once, the more quickly she tired. Catching the EMP pulse from Stark and then turning it back on him had taken a lot out of her. She'd let herself get angry and she'd gotten sloppy, putting too much of her own energy into the blast. She'd only meant to take out Stark and the electricity in the room. She was lucky that no one had died tonight because she'd let him and the Captain goad her into losing control.

Peeling off the catsuit, she left it on the floor where it fell as she stumbled into the shower. People often complained about the water quality in New York City, but YN needed those impurities to help re-energize herself. The added calcium and magnesium in the city's water supplied acted like a conductor, allowing her draw electricity from the air around her. For her, taking a shower was akin to charging her phone.

Once she felt that her energy reserves had been replenished, she turned off the spray and quickly dried off. The hot shower had helped to ease her sore muscles, but she knew that sleep was what she really needed to allow her body to heal from the punishment she'd inflicted on it tonight. Crawling into bed, she allowed herself to slip into unconsciousness.

 

YN was reading about her escapades in the paper the next day at work when she heard the bell above the door jingle. Instinctively looking up with a smile on her face, she silently cursed when she spotted Steve walking in with another man. She'd just read that all of the security guards in the building had only suffered mild headaches once they'd come to, so she wasn't surprised to see that the good Captain had emerged unscathed.

Still angry that he'd brought Stark in to ambush her, she decided to get even with him the only way knew she could – completely ignore his ridiculous crush on her. Normally she just treated him with indifference, but today was different. Today, he'd brought along a friend, and that friend seemed to be just her type. Tall, with long, dark hair, piercing blue-grey eyes, and aura of danger surrounding him, he was her idea of the perfect man.

Speaking to Steve, but focusing her gaze longingly at his friend, she asked. "What can I do for you today, Captain Rogers."

He stiffened from both the continued refusal to use his given name, and the from the way she was looking at his friend. "Uh, my friend, Bucky, was looking for a certain book, and I suggested we come down here to find it."

Recognizing the name, she made the connection between his friend and the Russian assassin that been all over the media a few months before. "Sergeant Barnes? What is it you're looking for?"

Bucky looked to Steve for help. "Bucky was reading a book during WWII that he never got a chance to finish, and I thought it might help him if he read it now. It was called _Animal Farm_ , do you know it?"

Coming around the counter, she grabbed Bucky's arm and began leading him toward a stack of books. "Right this way, Sergeant Barnes."

Bucky gave Steve a helpless look and allowed himself to led further into the bookstore. "You can call me Bucky."

"Bucky it is," she said, sneaking a glance over her shoulder to see the look of pure rage come over Steve's face. She was getting way too much enjoyment out of this than she should.

"It should be right here," she told Bucky as she found the section where George Orwell's book should be. "Hmm, that's strange. It looks like we only have a copy of _1984_. Give me a second, and I'll check the backroom. We just got a shipment of books in this morning, so we may have a copy back there."

YN started to walk away, but turned back to give Bucky a flirty smile. She could see Steve seething by the counter, and she reveled in the fact that she was getting under his skin. She knew she should probably feel sorry for Bucky, but if the guy could survive being a brainwashed assassin for seventy years, surely he could handle Steve's jealousy.

Opening the door to the stockroom, she flipped on the lights and headed toward the stack of unopened boxes in the corner. As she grabbed a box cutter to slit the tape on the first one, she felt a presence behind her. Spinning around, she came face to face with the tall bodyguard from the club the other night.

"Mr. Bernard wants a word with you, Ms. YLN," he said as he glared at her.

Shocked to see him here at the bookstore, she wasn't prepared for the blow to the back of her head. She fell forward, knocking down the stack of boxes as she tried to harness her power to defend herself. Still reeling from the force of the hit she'd taken, she couldn't concentrate hard enough to pull forth the electricity.

She heard the door to the back room slam open and was surprised to see Steve and Bucky rushing forward to save her. She was about to call out to them when she saw a fist flying toward her face out of the corner of her eye.

Steve looked on in horror as the two men in the back room attacked YN. He tried to get to her, but he wasn't quick enough. Bucky took on the taller man while Steve let loose the full fury of his rage on the burly man that had just knocked her unconscious.

The two assailants were no match for the super soldiers, and with just a couple blows, both of them were unconscious and Steve was finally able to get to YN. Crouching down beside her, he pulled her into his arms and tried to wake her.

"YN? Can you hear me?"

"Is she okay?" Bucky asked.

"I don't know," Steve said as he brushed a hand down the side of her face. "She's breathing, but she won't wake up. You need to call Tony and tell him to get down here now. I don't know who these guys are, but they must have been after us and YN got in the way."

"Should I call an ambulance for her?" Bucky asked as he pulled the phone from his pocket and hit Tony's speed dial.

"Not yet," Steve said as he looked back down at YN. "I think she's starting to come to, and I'd feel more comfortable with Bruce taking a look at her, in case whoever sent these guys decides to come after her to get to me."

YN's eyelids fluttered open, and she struggled to focus as the bright lights above her sent a searing pain straight through her skull. "What happened? Where am I?"

"YN?" Steve asked as he let out a sigh of relief. "It's okay. You took a nasty hit, but I'm here. I've got you."

YN looked up at the handsome man cradling her in his arms. "Who are you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 3 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! I loved the banter between her and Tony, but we can just admit for a second that if we didn't love him so much, we'd hate his sarcastic wit as much as she does!?! Why do you think she was so worried about Steve when she found him unconscious on the floor? Do you think she's harboring secret feelings for our beloved Captain? Maybe that's why she was shamelessly flirting with Bucky in this part. I know, I know, this story is supposed to be about Steve, and I'm being all mean to him by reminding him of a time when all the girls fawned over his best friend and ignored him. Don't worry, there is a method to my madness! The ending of this part was where all the fun happened, though. Why do you think Bernard's men were after the Reader? What did you think of the twist at the end? It appears that she has amnesia, but is this development going to work in Steve's favor, or against it? I look forward to your comments!_


	4. Chapter 4

"YN, it's me, Steve," he told her, immediately starting to get worried.

She looked up at the handsome man in confusion.  She honestly had no idea who Steve was, and the more she started to think about it, she realized that she had no idea who YN was.  Was that her name?  Why couldn't she remember if that was her name?  Where was she, and what had happened to her?  She knew she must have taken a pretty hard hit to the head since she had a horrible headache, but other than that, there were absolutely no clues as to who she was.

"I'm sorry," she said.  "I don't remember. . ."

"You don't remember what?" Steve asked as his fingers grazed over the knot beginning to form on the side of her head.

"I don't remember anything," she said, her voice starting to become panicked as the full weight of her situation came crashing down on here.  Why couldn't she remember anything?  Who was this man?  Was he a friend of hers, or was he the one that had hit her.  She began to struggle within his grasp.

"Woah, calm down for a second," Steve said as he saw the wild look in her eyes.  "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

She pulled away from him and scooted up against the wall.  "What happened to me?"

He nodded toward the two men laying unconscious on the floor a few feet away from her.  "My friend, Bucky, and I heard something crash back here, and when we came in, we found these men attacking you."

YN looked up at the tall, dark haired man that was standing in the doorway on the phone.  Neither he, nor the two men on the floor looked the least bit familiar to her.  "Why were they attacking me?"

"I think it's my fault," Steve said sheepishly.  "It's a long story, but I guess you could say I'm a superhero.  These guys must have been after me for some reason and you just got in their way.  I'm really sorry, YN."

"A superhero?" she asked in disbelief.  "You've got to be kidding me."

Bucky hung up the phone and turned back to her and Steve.  "Stark is on his way.  How are you feeling, YN?"

"She doesn't remember who is she, Buck," Steve said, giving YN a sympathetic look.

"What?" Bucky asked, instantly concerned.  "Do you remember anything?"

She started to shake her head, but the movement only caused the pain to increase.  Steve was immediately by her side, leaning down to effortlessly lift her into his arms.  

"You stay here and deal with these guys," Steve told him.  "I'm getting her back to the Tower so Bruce can run some tests.  Maybe he can explain why she has amnesia, and maybe do something to reverse it."

Steve didn't wait for a reply before turning toward the door and carrying YN out of the bookshop.  He could tell from the way she was looking around at everything that she was terrified, and he didn't blame her.  He remembered what it had been like for him to wake up after being frozen in the ice for so long.  He'd been just as confused by the world around him as she seemed to be right now.

He gently set her down beside the passenger side door of the car he'd borrowed from Tony.  He was glad he'd brought Bucky along with him today since it meant he hadn't ridden his motorcycle like he normally did.  She was still a little unsteady on her feet and he wasn't sure she'd have been able to stay on the back of the bike while he rode back to the tower a few blocks away. 

Helping her into the car, he fastened her seatbelt and hurried around to the driver’s side. As he drove through the streets of New York City, she leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. Steve pulled into the underground garage and parked the car in its designated space. She was still a bit unsteady on her feet as he helped her make her way to the elevator.

"Would you like me to carry you?" he asked.  "I don't mind."

She gave him a weak smile as he pressed the button for seventy-fifth floor.  "I'm fine, just a little dizzy.  Where are you taking me, again?"

"I'm sorry," he said realizing that he'd just whisked her away with offering any sort of explanation.  "This is the Avengers' Tower – it's where me and my team live and work."

"You have a team?" she asked.  "Of superheroes?"

"I realize that this must seem so strange to you right now, but I promise that I'm not lying to you," he said as the elevator reached the floor with Bruce's lab.  "We're going to go see one of my team members right now.  He's a doctor, and I want him to run some tests on you to make sure you're okay."

"Why didn't we go to the hospital?" she asked as she looked around the large space filled with unidentifiable high-tech equipment.

"I'm not sure who those guys were," he explained as Bruce came out of his office to meet them, "and I'd feel more comfortable if you were somewhere I know I can keep you safe."

"Steve," Bruce said when he'd reached them.  "Bucky called and filled me in on the situation."  He turned to YN and motioned for her to take a seat on his examining table.  "I'm Dr. Banner, but you can call me Bruce."

YN looked at Steve briefly before carefully taking a seat on the table.  "Steve says my name is YN, but I can't remember anything at all."

"It's okay," Bruce said, giving her a sympathetic smile.  "I'm going to ask you some questions and run a few tests.  Is that alright?"

"You're really a doctor?" she asked warily, looking back at Steve in confusion.  "Steve said you guys were all superheroes.  You don't really look like a superhero."

Bruce's face broke out into a huge smile.  "Thank you."

"Oh, no," she said, realizing how her words must have sounded.  "I didn't mean it like that, it's just that Steve and Bucky are. . .well, they're so big, and you just look like a normal guy."

"Don't worry," Bruce said with a small laugh.  "You didn't offend me.  Let's just say I have an alter ego that would fit in with your idea of what a superhero would look like, but I promise you, you don't want to meet him."

"Bruce," Steve chided.  "You're just as important to this team as the other guy."

"Thank you for that, Steve, but I'm not kidding myself about the real reason Fury wanted me to become a part of the Avengers."  Turning back to YN, he began to ask her some simple questions – what year it was, who was the president, what country there were in.

After about five minutes of questions, he then had her lay down so he could place electrodes onto her scalp.  It only took a few minutes for him to discover the source of her amnesia.

"See this here," he said as he pointed to something on the monitor.  "This area of her medial temporal lobe has been severely bruised which is what I think is causing the retrograde amnesia."

"Can you reverse it?" Steve asked.

Bruce shook his head.  "This type of amnesia is tricky.  It depends on the severity of the injury.  Some patients regain their memory in a matter of hours, but others may days or weeks to fully recover."  He paused for a moment before offering a sad smile to YN.  "There have been some cases where the patient never fully recovers their memories."

"I'm sure you won't be one of those cases, YN," Steve said as he laid a comforting hand on her arm.

She looked from the images on the monitor to the man standing beside her.  She had absolutely no memories of what her life had been like before she'd been attacked, but throughout this whole ordeal, this man had been right by her side.  She wasn't sure why, but she trusted him.

"Hate to interrupt the party," Tony said as he exited the elevator with Bucky right behind him.

"What did you find out?" Steve asked as he turned his attention toward the two men walking into the room.

"Seems like our little friends at the bookshop work for Henri Bernard," Tony said as he walked over to one of Bruce's computers.

"Why would Henri Bernard send his men after me?" Steve asked, his brows knitted in confusion.  "We just saved his company from Volt."

"That's not the way he sees it, apparently," Tony said as he pulled up a video and somehow expanded it three dimensionally.

"How did you. . .?" YN asked, her eyes growing wide.

"I've got a lot of neat toys, kid," Tony said with a wink.  

Everyone grew quiet as they watched a press conference that Henri Bernard had given just a few hours ago according to the time stamp on the video.  "I hold Captain America and Iron Man personally responsible for the injuries my security guards sustained as well as for the damage to the computer servers in my building."

There were a flurry of questions as the reporters all tried to get their voice heard above the crowd.  One reporter managed to get Bernard's attention.  "We were led to believe that Captain America and Iron Man were there to stop Sparky from destroying your servers.  Why are you now shifting the blame onto the Avengers?"

"It was Tony Stark's specially modified EMP that caused so much damage and injured more than a dozen men, not the vigilante you call Sparky," Bernard explained before taking a breath and continuing.  "It is my belief that these so-called superheroes are working with this vigilante to wreak havoc all over this city.  Every single time she's broken into a building, those two have been right there with her, causing so much collateral damage that no one can tell what was intentional and what was accidental.  Furthermore, I will not stop until I prove that the Avengers are the ones behind these attacks on me and my business associates, and I will not hesitate to turn over every rock, or to root out every source of information that will lead me to the truth."

Bernard finished his speech, turned, and walked away.  The reporters were in a frenzy as they continued to shout questions to his retreating back.  

With a wave of his hand, Tony made the projection vanish and he turned to give Steve a questioning look.  "Make more sense now?"

"I don't get it, Tony," Steve said with a shake of his head.  "Why would Bernard believe that we we working with Volt."

"Sparky," Tony corrected.  

"You know she hates that name," Steve said with a stern look.

Tony shrugged his shoulders and looked around the room quizzically.  "I don't see her here, so what does it matter what I call her?"

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a moment.  "You're missing the point, Tony.  It's your continued goading of her that causes her to lash out like she does."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tony said, as he swaggered toward Steve.  "I'm not the one she refers to as her nemesis.  That would be you, my dear."

"She and I have our issues," Steve argued, "but my shield absorbs most of her energy blasts.  It's when the two of you battle that the real damage is done.  Look what happened last night."

Tony pointed an accusing finger in Steve's face.  "You were the one that thought the EMP was a good idea."

"And you were the one that alerted her to your position and gave her time to prepare for the attack."

"I was trying to give you a heads up so you wouldn't get caught in the blast radius," Tony yelled.  "Forgive me for actually looking out for you."

"Guys," Bruce interrupted.  "I realize that you're both upset, and I don't blame you, but we have bigger issues to worry about."

"Bruce is right," Bucky said, speaking up for the first time.  "Bernard basically declared war on us and anyone that's connected to us."

Steve looked at YN who had been sitting on the exam table silently taking in everything she'd just witnessed.  If he hadn’t been worried before, he was now. "He's going to keep coming after me, and the people closest to me."

"We're close?" YN asked, her eyes growing large.

"Well," Steve began, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how to explain their relationship.  "Not exactly, but it sounds like Bernard has been holding onto this theory for a while.  He must have seen me visiting the bookshop and assumed that we're closer than we really are.  The point is, you're in danger."

Bruce could see the beginnings of a panic attack setting in and rushed into action.  "Take some deep breaths."  When he could see her starting to calm down, he suggested, "Why don't you lay down for a bit.  You've been through a lot today."

"Look," Tony said, pulling Steve out of YN's earshot.  "She's in no shape to take care of herself, and you're going to be too worried about her to be of any good to us.  Why don't you take her up to the compound for a few days – maybe a week or two – until we can find Sparky and get Bernard off our backs."

Steve looked back at YN and saw that Bruce was taking care of her.  "I don't know Tony.  She barely knows me. . ."

"You're the only person she does know, Steve," Tony argued.  "She may not know you very well, but she trusts you.  Consider it an order – go take of your girl."

Steve let out a sigh.  "She's not my girl, Tony."

"Who knows?" Tony said with a shrug.  "After a few days alone with you, she might be."

"Tony," Steve began.

"Don't think I don't know who talked Pepper into giving me another chance," Tony said, one eyebrow raised as if daring Steve to disagree.  "You helped me out when I didn't deserve it.  Consider this me returning the favor."

"Okay," Steve agreed, looking back at YN.  "I'm still going to ask her opinion, though.  I'm not forcing her to do anything she's not comfortable with."

"Fair enough," Tony said as he turned back toward Bucky.  "Okay, Manchurian Candidate, you're with me.  We have a sparkly blue vigilante to hunt down."

Bucky rolled his eyes and gave Steve a questioning look.  Steve shook his head and motioned for Bucky to go with Tony.  Turning back to YN and Bruce, he approached the side of the exam table.

"Tony thinks we should get out of town for a while," he told her as she began to sit up.  "Bernard is going to be looking for ways to get to us until he can get his proof."

"Are you working with that vigilante?" she asked as she eyed him warily.

"No," Steve said firmly.  "We're not sure what her game plan is, and we're sure she's up to something illegal, but we are absolutely not working with her.  We're the good guys, YN."

"Okay," she said, giving him a nod.  "When do we leave?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 4 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! We're still not sure exactly what Volt was doing in Bernard's building, and it appears as though the Avengers are just as clueless, but what did you think of Bernard's press conference? Why do you think he's trying to shift the blame to the Avengers? Do you have any theories as to what Volt is really up to? What did you think of Tony's suggestion for Steve to get the Reader out of town? I look forward to your comments!_


	5. Chapter 5

Steve had wanted to leave her in the common room with a few more of his friends, but she'd hesitantly asked if she could stay with him.  She knew he was as much of a stranger as the other people in this building, but he'd been the one to rescue her, and for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on, he made her feel safe.  Now she was curled up in the overstuffed chair in his room as he packed a bag for their trip.

"I asked my friend Natasha to go to your apartment to get some of your things," he told her as he carefully folded his shirts and pants before neatly placing them in the oversized duffle bag.

"Did you have a key?" she asked as she hugged her knees to her chest and watched his careful and precise movements around the room.

"No," he began as he rubbed a hand along the back of his neck.  "Nat has a way of. . . _overcoming_ most obstacles."

Her memories of him may only have been about an hour old, but she'd picked up on his body language fairly quick.  She'd seen him rub the back of his neck when he'd tried to explain their relationship to her in Bruce's lab, and she'd been pretty sure he'd been nervous as he answered her question.  Now he was doing it again, and she was pretty sure she knew why.  "You mean she's breaking into my apartment to pack up some of my clothes."

He took a breath and started to answer, but then stopped for a moment and exhaled with a sigh.  "Yeah.  Natasha is a former spy with the KGB, and she's mostly reformed, but she still has some issues with boundaries."

A slow smile spread across YN's face. "She sounds amazing, will I get to meet her before we leave?"

"Absolutely," Steve said as he cocked his head to the side and gave her a wide grin.  Even though he knew her shady history, he was pretty protective of Natasha, so he was glad that YN seemed willing to accept that the former assassin had changed her ways.

He placed the last few items in his bag and zipped it closed.  "I'm ready to go.  Why don't we head back to the common room and wait for Nat to bring your things?"

She unfolded herself from the chair and followed him out of the room.  She may not remember anything about her life, but she could still recognize an impressive space when she saw one.  The Avengers Tower was an extremely high-tech and sophisticated building, and she figured that someone with a large bank account must be funding this team of self-proclaimed superheroes.

As they exited the elevator onto the floor with the common area, she noticed a beautiful redhead standing next to a small rolling suitcase.  The woman turned when she heard them approach, and YN was met with a steely gaze that seem to take in everything about her in just a few seconds.  This must be Natasha.

"Steve," the redhead said, still not taking her eyes off of YN.  "I went to the apartment, but it looks like Bernard's men beat me there – it was a disaster."

YN felt her stomach drop as the reality of the situation suddenly started to become clear to her.  This Henri Bernard must really hate Steve to spend so much time and effort to try to get to her in order to draw him out.  All of a sudden, she wasn't sure if being around him was the safest option.

"Did he really think we'd send her back home after the attack in the bookstore?" Steve asked as he turned to see how YN had taken the news.  When he saw how distressed she was, he hesitated for a moment.  Giving into to his instincts, he dropped the duffle and laid his hands on her shoulders, waiting until she met his eyes before he spoke.  "Don't worry, as long as you're with me, I won't let anything else happen to you.  The team will stay here and deal with Bernard and Volt.  No one knows where the compound is, so we'll be safe there."

"I didn't bother going through your things," Nat said with a shrug.  "I hope you don't mind, but I went shopping and bought you all new clothes.  It's just basics – t-shirts, jeans, some leggings, and pajamas."

"Thank you," YN said automatically before she could really think about what Natasha had said.  "Wait a second, how did you know what size clothes to buy me?"

"I called Tony," Nat told her.

"Why did you call Tony?" Steve asked, genuinely confused as he let go of YN and turned back to Nat.  "Why didn't you call me?"

Nat pursed her lips and shook her head at Steve.  "Really?  You could've told me what size jeans she wears?"

Steve turned and looked at YN, and then realizing that he was basically gawking at her, looked away nervously.  "No, but why would Tony?"

A large smile spread across Nat's face.  "Tony Stark is the only man I know that can look at a woman and tell you her exact measurements in under thirty seconds.  He doesn't even realize that he does it – it's just second nature to him."

"That's a bit unfair," Steve said, offended for Tony's sake.  "He and Pepper. . ."

"Are great together," Nat finished with a wave of her hand.  "But he's still a playboy underneath it all.  Pepper's done a great job with him – I can almost tolerate him most days – but it's too ingrained in his DNA for him to stop noticing women."

"You all definitely have an interesting dynamic around here," YN observed with a wry grin.  "I'm kinda sorry I won't get to stick around to get to know you better."

"Once we figure out this whole mess, maybe you can come back and I can introduce you to the rest of the team," Steve said as he picked up his duffle and grabbed the handle of her suitcase with his other hand.  Looking over his shoulder at Nat, he said, "There's already a Quinjet at the compound, so I don't want to take the one from here.  Are you going to fly us up there, or should I call Bucky?"

"I think it'll be better if I stay here and try to hack into Bernard's files to see what he's been up to," Nat said with a serious look in her eye.  "There's a reason Volt targets these high powered firms, but I can't figure out why.  None of them have reported a theft, but I find it hard to believe that you and Tony stop her every time before she completes her objective."

"Okay," he said with a nod.  "You work on that, and I'll get Bucky to fly us out."

He turned to YN with a smile and nodded for her to head toward the elevators.  She started to follow him, but stopped and turned back toward Natasha.

"It was really nice to meet you," she told the other woman.  "And thank you for going shopping for me."

Nat looked at Steve with an expression on her face that YN almost thought was pity.  "Any friend of Steve's is a friend of mine.  Just try to lay low and stay out of trouble while we solve this mystery."

 

As YN walked down the cargo ramp of the plane, she stopped for a moment to take in the scenery around her.  She had no idea if she'd ever been to Upstate New York before, but she knew she would have to start making it a habit in the future.  The warm spring air had a hint a moisture in it that foretold the heat and humidity that summer would most likely bring in a few weeks.  The leaves on the trees were a bright green that spoke of new life and fresh beginnings.  That what this situation was for her she realized – a chance for a new life and a fresh beginning.  She wasn't sure if her memories would ever come back, so she had to learn to live in the moment and try to formulate some idea of what she wanted her life to be like.  She would use this time in isolation with Steve to figure out what her interests were, so once this ordeal was all over, she could work on rebuilding her life.

As she turned and looked at the buildings in front of her, she thought she saw the sun glinting off a large body of water through the trees.  Was she scared of water?  Did she even know how to swim?  Shaking her head, she brought her attention back to where she was.  She watched as Bucky and Steve walked past her toward the hangar.  Even if she'd hadn't been told that they were best friends, she would have figured it out on her own, just from the way they acted around one another.  Just seeing them together, you could tell that they had a bond that had been forged through years of shared life experiences.  Steve had tried to explain the unique circumstances that had led to the two of them becoming superheroes on the flight to the compound, but she was having a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that they had both grown up during the Great Depression.  Looking at them now, anyone would've thought that they were both in their late twenties or early thirties – they were both broad shouldered and narrowed hipped, and they walked with a lethal grace that only came from years of combat training.  As a woman, she could definitely appreciate their lean physiques, even though she knew that's not where her mind should be wondering.  Still yet, she wasn't too upset at the prospect of spending some time alone with Steve.  He seemed interested in her, so why shouldn't she take some time to explore that avenue?

When he noticed that she wasn't following him and Bucky, he turned around, concern written all over his face.  "Are you alright?"

Embarrassed at having been caught, she refused to meet his eyes.  "I was just admiring the view."

With a relieved smile, Steve turned and looked through the trees at the lake sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight.  "It is a spectacular view, isn't it."

"Yes it is," she said as her gaze raked over his profile.

Bucky cleared his throat and YN's eyes darted to him, only to find him staring at her with a smirk on his face.  Embarrassment again washed over her as she realized that he knew she hadn't been referring to the lake.  Squaring her shoulders, she marched past them and headed into the hangar.

Bucky shook his head and smiled to himself.  YN may have seemed indifferent to Steve this morning in the bookstore, but since she'd lost her memories, he thought she was starting to see his friend in a different light.  He knew he should say something to Steve since he was sure his friend was oblivious to her change of heart, but there was a part of him that wanted to see how this would all play out.  YN may not have her memories, but her personality – from what he'd heard about her from Steve – seemed to have remained intact.  Just that morning, she'd been staring at him with that hungry look in her eye, but her attention had seemed to have shifted away from him and onto Steve.  His friend had no idea what he was in for if YN decided that he was the man she wanted.

Steve led them through the hangar and up a set of stairs that branched off into a couple of hallways.  YN was curious as to what lay beyond, but Steve turned to the right and continued toward the elevated catwalk that connected two of the buildings.  YN had noticed the catwalk from the landing pad, and had hoped to see it since it looked like it afforded a better view of the lake.  She wasn't disappointed as she gazed at the impressive body of water just over the tops of the trees along the shoreline.  A slow smile played across her face as she wondered what Steve would look like in nothing put a pair of swim trunks.  She'd have to find a way to convince him to let her go swimming while they were here.

As they walked along the corridors of the compound, Steve filled the silence with comments about the building and what it had been used for before Tony had turned it into the Avengers secret base of operations.  He acted the part of the tour guide – pointing out various rooms and features as she asked questions here and there.  Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that Bucky seemed to be taking this in for the first time as well.

"Have you not been here before?" she asked the broody brunet.

One corner of his mouth turned down as he shook his head.  "Stark wants to move the whole operation out here, but he decided to put it off once the team was reunited after the battle over the Sokovia Accords.  I'd personally prefer it out here away from all the people in the city."

"I'm not sure which I'll prefer – the city or the country," she said.  "I didn't really get a chance to experience the city as Steve drove me from the bookstore to the Tower, but so far, I'm loving it out here.  It's so quiet and isolated, but I'm also worried that since I live in the city, there won't be any potential triggers that could help jog my memory."

"I know," Steve said with a pained look on his face.  "If it weren't for Bernard's men being after us, I'd have kept you in the city and Kyle and I could have taken you around to all of your favorite spots in hopes that you would have recognized something."

A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.  Kyle?  Who was Kyle?  Was he her boyfriend, and if he was, why wasn't he here with them now?  Deciding that it was better to know more details about her life right now, she asked, "Who's Kyle?"

"Oh," Steve said, lowering his head and giving it a shake.  "I'm sorry.  Kyle is your best friend – she works with you at the bookstore."

"Kyle is a girl?" she asked, wanting to make sure she understood that correctly.

Steve noticed the tone of her voice and hoped that it meant she'd been worried that Kyle might have been her boyfriend.  He shot a glance at Bucky, but quickly looked away when he noticed the smirk on his best friend's face.  "Yeah, she told me once that the ultrasounds all showed she was a boy, but when she was born and her parents discovered she was a girl, they decided to keep the name they'd already picked out."

YN gave Steve a smile.  "It seems you and Kyle are pretty good friends, yourselves.  You'll have to tell me more about her." YN started walking toward the wall of windows that overlooked the lake, but suddenly stopped and turned back to Steve.  "Wait.  What if Kyle's in danger?"

Steve was by her side in a flash, his comforting hands laying on her shoulders once more as he stared intently into her eyes.  "She's fine.  I had one of our teammates check on her before we left, and Tony decided to put her in a safe house until all of this is over.  He said he was going to contact the owner of the bookstore and let her know what was going on in case she wanted to close the store for a few days."

"I didn't even think about my boss," YN said as she stared off into space.  "There are all of these people in my life that I don't remember, but they'll probably be worried about me."  Her gaze came back to Steve.  "What about my parents?  My landlord or landlady?"

"Tony was working on all of that before we left," Steve said, trying to calm her down.  "I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but it looks like both of your parents died a few years ago in a car accident, and you didn't have any siblings.  Tony was still looking for distant relations that might be concerned about you, but other than Kyle, the only other person is your life is your boss, who coincidentally enough, also happens to be your landlady, Sydney Cartwright."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 5 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! It seems as though she's starting to become attached to Steve. Is this going to be a good thing, or a bad thing once he finds out who she really is? Bucky definitely noticed the change in her attitude toward Steve. Do you think her feelings will change once she gets her memories back? I look forward to your comments!_


	6. Chapter 6

Before Tony had reassigned the skeleton crew that had been keeping watch over the compound, he'd had someone restock the pantry and fridge with enough supplies to see Steve and YN through for a few weeks. She'd offered to cook dinner for Bucky before he returned to the city, but he'd politely declined, stating that Tony needed him to help with the search for Volt.

Now that he was gone, YN realized just how isolated she was from the world, and the only other soul around for miles was a man she barely knew. Steve had given her no reason not to trust him, in fact, he'd done everything possible to ease her fears and misgivings about their situation. Though, without the friendly banter between Steve and Bucky, she felt like a ship left adrift at sea.

Steve watched the Quinjet disappear over the trees and turned back to YN. "Well, it's just the two of us. You mentioned something about dinner, are you hungry? I can make us something if you are."

"I am," she said as she turned to follow him back through the hangar to the living quarters. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to try to cook something. I saw some hamburger in the fridge, so I was thinking about spaghetti."

"I hate to sound rude, but. . ."

"Do I even know how to make spaghetti?" she asked, finishing his question for him.

He looked down at the ground and rubbed the back of his neck again. "Well, yeah. I'm not really sure how retrograde amnesia works."

Realizing that she'd made him nervous again, she tried to help him understand. "Bruce tried to explain it to me while you were talking to Tony in the lab. Basically, he said that my memory loss affects facts, not skills. I can't tell you the last time I ate spaghetti, but I still know how to make it. He said I should still know how to drive a car, or read a book – things like that. It's my life experiences that have gone missing."

"Okay," Steve said, nodding his head in understanding. "That makes sense. I mean, you still know how to walk and talk, so learned skills must be in a different part of the brain than the one that was injured."

YN gave him a smile and walked into the kitchen. "Why don't you tell me more about being a superhero while I cook? I have a lot of history to get caught up on."

Steve took a seat at the bar and watched the way she moved around the kitchen. He'd always admired her grace as she zigzagged around the stacks of books in the bookstore, so he was glad to see that she hadn't lost that quality. He took a moment to remember where he'd left off in his and Bucky's story in the Quinjet. He'd only gotten to the part where he'd rescued Bucky from behind enemy lines, and he was glad that his friend had already gone back to New York so he didn't have to relive his time under HYDRA's control as Steve told the story.

YN was captivated by the story Steve was telling her. Every so often, she'd turn around so she could see the look on his face as he relived certain parts. She could tell that it was hard for him to talk about it, but at the same time, he had a sense of peace about him that made her think it was long overdue for him to share this story. Her heart broke when he spoke of the torture Bucky endured, and she tried to reconcile the man she'd met a few hours ago to the brainwashed assassin Steve was describing.

His story continued well into dinner, but YN was too invested to interrupt him. He continued to talk as he ate, and even after the plates were cleared and the dishes had been washed, they'd sat back at the table so he could finish. He'd tried to give all the credit for Bucky's recovery to Wakanda’s King T’Challa and his sister Shuri, but YN knew that it was mostly because of him that Bucky had been able to put his tortured past behind him and move on. It gave her hope that he might be able to do the same thing for her. She still wasn't clear on what their relationship had been like before the attack, but surely he must care for her to go to all this trouble to keep her safe.

By the time he'd finished, the sun had set and the sky outside the wide wall of windows was pitch black. She looked around the room in surprise when she noticed that the lights in the kitchen and dining area were on. "Did you turn those on?"

Steve looked up in confusion, but then smiled as he explained. "Tony created an Artificial Intelligence interface that runs everything. I've gotten so used to it over the years, I forget it's always running in the background." He looked up at the ceiling before saying, "FRIDAY, say hello to YN."

"Hello, Miss YLN," a slightly computerized voice with an Irish lilt said from out of nowhere.

"How does it know my last name?" she asked Steve in a whisper.

"Mr. Stark informed me of your impending arrival and tasked me with keeping watch over the compound while the two of you are in residence," the AI explained before Steve could say anything.

"Well, it's nice to know than in addition to a super soldier bodyguard, I have a security system on steroids to keep me safe," YN teased with a smile.

Steve let out a laugh. "I'll have to remember that one – Tony'll get a kick out of it." He rose from the table and looked down at his watch. "You've had a long day, why don't we turn in for the night?"

She hadn't realized how exhausted she was until Steve mentioned it. Stifling a yawn, she gave him an abashed smile and followed him down the hallway toward the bedrooms.

He stopped at a door and opened it for her, letting her go in first. "I set this room up a few years ago for Bucky, but I doubt he'll mind you using it. I'm right next door in case you need anything."

YN looked around the room and was pleasantly surprised to see pictures of Steve and Bucky from back when they were growing up. She wasn't sure where he'd gotten the pictures, but she assumed that once he'd been declared KIA by the military, any and all memorabilia related to him had been carefully preserved. Someone must have been kind enough to either give him back the originals or make him copies.

"Thank you Steve," she told him as he smiled and began to pull the door shut. She hesitated for a moment before she called out to him. "Wait."

He paused in the doorway and gave her a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

She opened her mouth to say something, but the words died on her lips. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage and tried again. "I know it's going to sound silly, but I really don't want to be alone right now. Would you mind staying until I fall asleep?"

"That doesn't sound silly at all," he said as he stepped back into the room and laid a hand on her arm. 

"I know I don't really know you all that well, but at the same time you're the only person I know right now." She looked into his eyes to see if he understood what she was trying to say.

He gave her a sad smile. "It's okay, I get it. Why don't you go get ready for bed, and I'll wait here for you."

She let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you." 

Steve took a seat in the chair by the desk as he watched her search through the suitcase Nat had packed for her. Pulling out a set of pajamas, and a small cosmetic case, she shot him a quick smile and went into the bathroom. He heard the water start to run in the sink as he leaned forward and rested his head in his hands. He'd been so caught up in the events of the day that it really hadn't sunk in that he was actually alone with her – he was alone with the woman he was all but in love with, and she had no idea who he was. He wasn't sure if he should be happy or sad about that fact. If she hadn't lost her memories, would she have been willing to let him protect her, or would her carefully built walls have prevented her from accepting his help? He tried not to think about what would have happened to her if she hadn't decided she could trust him. He knew he shouldn't be thankful that she'd lost her memories, but there was a part of him that couldn't deny the fact that at least now she'd get a chance to really get to know him, and maybe once she got her memories back, she'd be willing to give him a chance.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as the bathroom door opened and she cautiously walked out. She gave him that sweet, shy smile that he was quickly learning to love as she walked toward the bed and pulled down the covers.

"Do you just want me to sit here until you fall asleep?" he asked once she'd gotten comfortable. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to decide how to answer him.

"Would you mind lying down next to me?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "You can stay on top of the covers, of course. It's just that I feel safer when you're close to me."

Steve couldn't help the elation he felt at hearing her say those words. All he'd ever wanted was to be close to her, and now she was finally asking him to do the very thing he'd dreamed of. Trying not to let his emotions show, he rose from the chair and made his way over to the bed. Lying on his side on top of the comforter, he tucked one arm under his pillow and looked into her eyes as she lay on her side facing him.

"I know I keep saying it, but thank you. I honestly don't know what would've happened if you hadn't been there to save me today." Although she'd promised herself that she wouldn't, she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.

He reached out and brushed a thumb across her cheek to catch a stray tear. "You don't have to thank me, YN. I'm partly to blame for this whole situation – if it weren't for your connection to me, Bernard would've never attacked you. I should be asking you to forgive me."

"About that," she said, finally reigning in her emotions. "You never did say what our relationship was like. Are we just friends, or are we dating?"

A war raged within his mind as he tried to decide what to tell her. Should he lie and say that they were just friends, or should he just be honest with her? Deciding that her trust in him was more important than anything else right now, he went with the truth. "We're not dating, and I wouldn't exactly call us friends. See, the thing is, I really like you, but. . ."

"But?" she prompted when he suddenly paused.

"But," he continued, "you kinda hate me."

"What?" she asked, her eyes growing wide at his admission. "How could I hate you – you're the sweetest guy, and you're a superhero?"

His heart swelled for a moment and he let himself wallow in the warmth her words spread throughout him. "I'm too much of a Boy Scout, apparently. Your friend Kyle alluded to the fact that you prefer the bad boys." He watched her face for a reaction and when he saw the disbelief in her eyes, he kept going. "In the spirit of honesty, you were actually flirting with Bucky this morning before you were attacked. That's why you were in the backroom – you were looking for a book for him."

"Bucky?" she asked with a skeptical smile. "I was flirting with Bucky? And you were in the same room? Wow, I must be the world's biggest idiot. Maybe it's a good thing I got hit over the head."

He started laughing and it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever heard. He was so pure and virtuous, and the world didn't deserve him. She obviously didn't deserve him if she couldn't see what a wonderful person he really was. Maybe it had been a good thing that she'd lost her memories. She just hoped that if she ever got them back that she would remember the way she felt at this very moment so she could change things between them.

"You should try to get some sleep," he told her once he'd stopped laughing. 

Giving into an impulse, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek before settling back into her spot. With one last smile, she closed her eyes and let the exhaustion take over. Just knowing that he was there calmed her frazzled nerves and she slipped into a peaceful sleep.

Steve lay awake and watched as her breathing started to even out. He knew that she was asleep, but he couldn't bring himself to leave just yet. Brushing a hand down the side of her face, he took in every detail about her. He'd always thought she was beautiful, but seeing her like this, he realized that she was perfect in every way. He could feel the stress of the day settling over him like a blanket, and he knew he should probably go, but he told himself he needed just one more minute. One minute turned into five, and then before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep beside her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 6 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  The lines are starting to get blurred right now!  He's falling even more in love with her and she's starting to develop feelings for him, but we all know the truth about who she really is.  Do you even want her to get her memories back at this point?  I look forward to your comments!_


	7. Chapter 7

Exhaustion, coupled with the stress from the day had originally pulled YN into a deep sleep, but as the night wore on, she was plagued with odd dreams that caused her heart to race as flashes of blue light erupted all around her. Waking up suddenly, she lay perfectly still with her eyes still closed as she tried to calm her pounding heart. She took a few deep breaths before slowly opening her eyes. The sun had already risen and light was pouring in through the windows and skylight above her, blinding her for a moment. Once her eyes had adjusted, she saw the peacefully sleeping form of Steve right beside her. A small smile played at the corners of her lips when she realized that he must have stayed with her all night.

Not wanting to wake him, she lay motionless beside him as she thought about what he'd told her just before they fell asleep last night. Could she have really hated this kind, sensitive man? He'd mentioned that she'd been flirting with his friend, and while Bucky was an extremely good-looking man, she couldn't imagine why she'd preferred him to Steve. 

Finally giving in to temptation, she reached out a hand and lightly grazed her fingers along his jaw. The scratch of stubble abraded her fingers, but she found that she didn't dislike it. Taking a closer look, she realized that it was more than just a five o'clock shadow that peppered his jawline. While not exactly a full beard, the dark blond hairs were longer than most men's after one night. Pulling her hand away, her brow knitted as she debated this fact with herself. She knew her memory wasn't something she could trust right now, but surely she wasn't imagining something as simple as a man's beard growing abnormally long overnight.

When one eyelid peeked open, she realized that she'd been caught. Burying her face in the covers, she whispered a quiet hello. She may not remember who she was, but she definitely remembered that morning breath was a thing. Steve must have also been aware of that particular affliction since he opted for a smile instead of verbally answering her. 

Throwing back the covers, she slipped from the bed and walked halfway across the room before speaking again. "You didn't have to stay all night, but I'm glad you did."

Steve rolled to his back and propped his hands beneath his head as he took in her adorably rumpled appearance. "Did you sleep well?"

The smile faded from her face as she suddenly recalled the strange dreams with the flashes of blue light. Sure that it was just her mind trying to make sense of the trauma it had endured the day before, she brushed it off. "A few odd dreams, but I guess that's to be expected with a head injury. I'm going to freshen up a bit before we get breakfast, is that okay?"

"No, that's fine," Steve said as he sat up and swung his legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. "I normally try to get a run in before the sun comes up, but I must have needed the extra sleep this morning since my internal alarm didn't wake me up. If you don't mind, I'll use the workout room by the hangar for a quick run before we eat."

"Is there more than one treadmill?" she asked, thinking that a short walk might be good for her.

"Sure," he said as he stood and headed for the door, rubbing his chin as he walked. "I'm going to go change and shave off this stubble real quick before we head down."

"Do you have to?" She couldn't believe that she'd actually said that out loud. Closing her eyes in humiliation, she tried to figure out how to get herself out of the embarrassing situation she'd just gotten herself into.

His eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Have to what? Change?"

"No," she answered with a grimace. "I meant, did you have to shave?"

His confusion grew even deeper. "I don't understand. Why don't you want me to shave?"

"I don't know," she said as she stared at her toes, unable to meet his eyes. "I guess I'm just curious to see what you'd look like with a beard." She paused for a moment before deciding that she'd come this far, she might as well just get it all out in the open. "I noticed that your stubble was longer than most men. . .at least I think it is. . .I'm not really sure. Anyway, the point is, I figured that since it seemed like your hair grew faster than most, it wouldn't take you that long to grow a beard. I know it's stupid. . ."

A huge smile spread across his face as he interrupted her. "It's not stupid, and you're right, by the way. It's the serum they gave me back in the forties. My hair and fingernails grow faster than they did before I took it, or at least I think they do. I wasn't the healthiest guy back then, if you remember me telling you, so I don't really have a great reference point." He stopped for a moment as she raised her head to meet his eyes again. He was really loving the way she looked at him now, and he knew that he'd do anything and everything she asked of him as long as she kept smiling at him like that. "As for the beard, I've never really thought about letting it grow out. I guess it didn't really fit the Captain America image, but maybe it's time for a new look."

He didn't wait for a response from her before he headed out the door to his own room. YN stood in the middle of the floor, still not sure what was going on with her. She knew she didn't have any memories to guide her, but for some reason, she knew that this was completely out of character for her. What was it about Steve Rogers that had her acting like a schoolgirl with a crush? Shaking her head, she walked into the bathroom to get ready for her morning workout.

 

She knew she'd made a mistake the second she walked into the hallway and saw him in the skintight Under Armour shirt and workout pants. Now she was stuck on a treadmill beside him watching the way those impressive muscles of his moved beneath the tight confines of his clothing and she was starting to find it hard to breathe. Thankfully, he mistook her shortness of breath as her being out of shape and not her increasingly inappropriate thoughts about him. 

"Do you need to stop?" he asked as he ran on the machine beside her.

She was amazed that he wasn't even the slightest bit out of breath, especially considering the speed at which he was running. She may have scoffed at the idea that he was a superhero yesterday, but as she continued to learn new things about him, it was apparent that he was definitely not your typical guy. Knowing she should take the out he'd given her before she completely humiliated herself, she ignored her inner voice, if only to spend a few more minutes ogling him.

"I'm fine," she finally answered with a smile. "I guess I'm just really out of shape. A few more minutes won't kill me. Please don't feel like you have to shorten your run for my sake."

He gave her a wary look before nodding in agreement. "Okay, but if you start feeling lightheaded or get any more out of breath, we're stopping. You need to focus on recovering right now, and there's no reason to push yourself."

She gave him a slight nod and tried to focus her attention on the large TV screen directly in front of them. Steve had turned it on to a news station so they could catch up on any recent developments. He'd assured her that Tony or Bucky would call if they learned anything more about Henri Bernard or Volt, but it didn't hurt to stay up-to-date on other current events. Right now a reporter was covering a story in the Middle East where two countries were embroiled in a decades long war that had resulted in more loss of life during the night. 

There was a part of her that felt as though she should be doing more than just sitting by and watching the world crumble around her, but she didn't know what it was that she could do about it. She couldn't figure out why she felt the need to be proactive since Steve had told her that she lived a simple life working in a bookstore a few blocks from her tiny apartment. Maybe it was because she had been surrounded by superheroes right after her accident. Seeing the way they were able to jump in and help people made her feel like she should be doing more as well. 

Shaking off the thoughts, she drew her attention back to the news program. She saw Steve increase the volume using the controls on his treadmill when a new reporter came on and soon she was able to hear the reporter's voice as he began recounting the accusations that Bernard had made against the Avengers and the vigilante known as Sparky.

"Why do you call her Volt, when everyone else calls her Sparky?" YN asked as a picture of the woman came up on the screen.

Steve let out a deep sigh before he answered her. "She calls herself Volt." He motioned toward the image on the screen before continuing. "As you can see, she has the ability to control electricity. Tony has a bad habit of giving people nicknames they don't particularly care for – hence the name Sparky. The media picked up on it and started rolling with it. I guess they thought it suited her better than Volt."

"So Bucky's superhero name really isn't Manchurian Candidate?"

Steve closed his eyes and shook his head for a moment before answering her. "I didn't realize you'd caught that yesterday. No, that's not his official name. HYDRA called him the Winter Soldier, but to me, he'll always be Bucky."

"So, what does Manchurian Candidate mean?" she asked, wondering why Tony thought it was an appropriate name for Steve's best friend.

"It's the title of both a book and a movie," Steve explained. "It's about a former POW of the Korean War that was brainwashed into becoming an assassin for the KGB."

"Oh," YN said. "It makes sense given Bucky's history you told me about yesterday, and I guess it's a passive aggressive way for Tony to keep reminding Bucky that he killed his parents while he was under HYDRA's control."

Letting out a deep sigh, Steve said, "You're absolutely right. I hate that Tony still does it, but Bucky feels like he deserves it since he was powerless to stop HYDRA from controlling him for almost seventy years."

"Do you ever think Tony will forgive him?"

"I honestly don't know."

A sad look came over Steve's face, and YN immediately felt guilty for having started the conversation. Trying to think of something to ease the tension, she blurted out the first thing she could think of. "What does Tony call you? Nothing too bad, I hope?"

The dejected look on his face was instantly transformed into a beaming smile. "Tony has a few nicknames for me. His favorite is Capsicle, but once he locked me out of the Tower's security system unless I used the code name Captain Handsome."

YN's hand flew to her mouth to stifle the laugh that had burst out unexpectedly. "He didn't?"

Steve shook his head in exasperation, but there was still a smile on his face. "He most certainly did. Tony has an odd sense of humor, and sometimes he takes things a little too far, but. . ."

YN waited for Steve to finish, but it seemed as though he couldn't find the words he was looking for. "But what?"

He shot a quick look in her direction before lowering the speed on his treadmill and turning back to the television. "I was going to say that he usually means well, but then I remembered the other night with Volt. If he hadn't goaded her the way he did, we might have had a chance to stop her and bring her in. Then Bernard wouldn't have had any reason to be suspicious of us and send those guys after you."

"Don't do that."

"Don't do what?" he asked, turning to look at her and finding a look of anger on her face.

"Don't blame yourself, or Tony for that matter, for what happened to me," she said. "The only person to blame is Bernard for sending those goons after me to get to you. If you start laying the blame on other people, then you're basically excusing Bernard's behavior when he's the one who's truly at fault."

Steve was happy to see some of the fire he'd always admired in her come back, and he was glad to see that it was aimed at Bernard instead of himself. "What about Volt, though? Is she blameless in your eyes?"

"I don't know," YN answered, her lips forming a hard line. "Even Natasha said that you guys don't know what her endgame really is. Maybe she's a villain, or maybe she's a vigilante. Either way, she's not the one that sent Bernard's men after me. The blame for my condition rests solely on that man's head, and I, for one, don't really care what his reasons were."

YN wasn't really sure where her righteousness indignation had come from, but it felt good to vent some of the pent up anger, even if she hadn't been aware that she'd had any pent up anger. She guessed that it made sense that she would be upset at the man who'd caused her to be in this situation, but she also knew that there was nothing she, or Steve, could do about it. Her mind had decided to shield her from her past for reasons that neither she, nor Dr. Banner, could explain, and she just had to allow herself to heal and hope that her memories would eventually come back.

Steve had finished up his cool down while she'd been lost in her own thoughts, but the sight of him walking across the elaborate workout facility drew her back to reality. He was definitely a sight to behold with those broad shoulders, tiny waist, and firm backside. Shaking her head at her own former stupidity, she turned off her machine and began to follow him from the room.

"Shower and then breakfast?" she asked as they entered the elevator.

"Sounds good," he agreed. "But you have to let me cook this morning. You're my guest, and I don't want you to think that you have to wait on me while we're here."

"I don't think that at all," she assured him as they exited the elevator and headed toward their rooms. "To be honest, I'm hoping that doing routine tasks, like cooking, will help jog my memory somehow. How about we compromise and cook breakfast together?"

Steve paused outside his door as she continued down the hall. "That sounds good. Did you have something in mind?"

"How about breakfast burritos with fried potatoes?"

"Okay," he said as he nodded in agreement. "Meet me in the kitchen once you finish cleaning up."

YN gave him a smile as she slipped into her room and walked over to the suitcase sitting by the dresser. Rummaging through the clothes, she made a mental note to put everything away neatly later today so it would be easier to find something to wear. Pulling out a pair of leggings and a long tunic top, she laid them on the end of the bed before making her way to the bathroom.

She found Steve already in the kitchen gathering supplies, and was pleased to see that he heeded her request not to shave his beard off. With his hair still wet and spiky from the shower, he looked like a scruffy college frat boy who spent more time partying than he did studying. YN decided it was a good look for him, and wondered how his look would change as his hair continued to grow.

As she walked into the kitchen, he turned and gave her a smile that had butterflies dancing in her stomach. Willing herself to stay in control of her hormones, she smiled back and grabbed a knife from the block by the stove to begin peeling and dicing the potatoes he'd already placed in the sink.

Steve began to brown the sausage on the stove and YN was amazed at how well they worked together in the kitchen. He'd turned on some music, and she found herself swaying her hips to the beat as they effortlessly danced around one another while they prepared their portions of the meal. 

She had just put the glass lid on top of the pan of potatoes when an older song from his era began playing. Steve paused in the middle of beating the eggs and gave her a questioning look. Not waiting for an answer, he put down the bowl and grabbed her hand. Realizing what he intended, she slid into his arms and allowed him to lead her around the kitchen. She had no idea if she'd ever been a good dancer, but Steve was more interested in having fun that following proper form. Within minutes, she was laughing along with him as he began to spin her around. 

As the song came to an end, he suddenly dipped her and her arms automatically wrapped around the back of his neck to keep herself from falling backwards, even though he had a firm grip on her. The music switched to a slow song, but neither of them really took notice as the mood between them shifted. She could see the laughter die in his eyes as desire began to take its place. She knew her own eyes were a mirror of his, and for a moment an internal war raged within herself. Should she throw caution to the wind and deal with consequences of her actions later, or should she let her common sense prevail and slip out of his embrace while she still had the chance?

He had been unprepared for the turn of events, but now that he had her in his arms, he was finding it hard to let go. She had been smiling and laughing with him while they'd danced, but now she was looking at him the way he'd always dreamed she would, and he could feel the desperation rising within himself. He knew it was wrong to give in to these emotions, simply because she wasn't in the right frame of mind to be making decisions when she didn't know her own feelings anymore. The longer he held her, though, the quieter his ever-present conscience became. Finally allowing his sense of morality reign himself in, he began to step away, but he didn't get far.

She'd seen the conflict in his eyes and knew that he had decided to do the right thing. A part of her agreed that it was for the best, but a small voice inside of her screamed at her to take a chance. She decided to listen to the rebellious voice as her hands slid from his neck to cup his stubble-roughened jaw. She saw the look of surprise in his eyes as her lips grazed his just before hers fluttered closed.

She'd been expecting a sweet, innocent kiss, not only because of his self-proclaimed Boy Scout persona, but also because of her injury. She was wrong. His arms had immediately tightened around her back as he pulled her flush against him, and his mouth became demanding which had flames of desire erupting within her. When his teeth nipped at her bottom lip, she willingly granted him access. As her system was flooded with an onslaught of emotions, she struggled to keep some semblance of control. She felt herself being guided backwards until her back was pressed against the cold steel of the refrigerator door. Finally giving in to the inevitable, she relinquished all control and began to lose herself in the kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 7 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! Things are staring to heat up!!! What did you think of that kiss???  How do you think she's going to feel if she ever gets her memories back?  How is he going to feel?  There's still a lot more to go with this one, and the fun is just getting started! I look forward to your comments!_


	8. Chapter 8

Steve's hands were strong, yet gentle as they slid down her back to grasp her hips and pull her even closer to him.  Her own hands snaked upward so she could bury her fingers in the still-damp blond locks.  She was becoming dizzy from both the desire, and the lack of air as Steve's insistent mouth continued to ravage her own.  The passion flowing through her veins was heady as it began to dull her thoughts while simultaneously electrifying her nerve endings.  It seemed as though every brush of his lips against hers sent a shockwave throughout her body.

She wasn't sure how long the kiss would have gone on, or if it would have led to something more, but fate decided that they wouldn't have a chance to find out the answers to those questions that morning.  With a screeching blare, the smoke alarm began to sound, forcing the two of them apart.  Their eyes met in a moment of confusion before Steve finally reacted and pulled the skillet of sausage from the burner and grabbed a dish towel to fan the alarm.

Watching the scene unfold before her, she couldn't help the bubble of laughter that arose from within her.  Trying to hold it back was futile, and with one hand covering her mouth, it finally erupted with a squeak.  Steve's attention was immediately back on her, and for a moment she saw the panic in his eyes before he realized that she wasn't hurt or upset.

He closed his eyes and dropped his head with a shake.  Lifting his head just a fraction, he peeked out at her through one squinted eye as his neck and face started to turn a few shades of red.  He looked so adorable, her heart swelled.

"I feel like I owe you an apology," he began sheepishly.

"For what? Kissing me back, or stopping?" she asked feeling a little devious all of a sudden.

Realizing what her words implied had a little bit of his self-confidence coming back as a cocky look replaced the bashful one in the blink of an eye.  "You did kiss me first, didn't you?"

She started to walk toward him, but veered at the last second to head toward the stove, her hand grazing the side of his thigh as she passed.  Looking carefully at the two skillets on the stove, she decided that breakfast was still salvageable.  She knew he was standing behind her waiting for her to say something, and for some reason, she enjoyed having the upper hand with him.  Deciding to see where things might go, she turned back toward him and gave him a long look.  He still had a look of shock on his face from where she'd fooled him into believing that she was about to rekindle the passion between them that had been so rudely interrupted by the smoke of the burning sausage.

"How long have you wanted to do that?" she asked, genuinely curious as to how long she'd supposedly been rebuffing his advances.

"Honestly?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.

"You were the one who insisted on being honest," she reminded him with a shrug.

"Since the day I wandered into that bookshop and saw you behind the counter," he told her as a wistful smile spread across his face.  "If you're looking for an exact timeframe, then it's been one month, nine days, and. . ." he paused to glance at the clock on the stove.  "Eighteen minutes."

Her mouth fell open a little as it finally dawned on her just how infatuated he'd been with her.  She struggled against the black curtain that seemed to shroud her memories as she desperately tried to figure out what could have possibly caused her to dislike him so much.  From what she'd learned about him in the past twenty-four hours, he seemed like the perfect guy – handsome, charming, chivalrous, and extremely seductive.

Seeing her dismay, he walked over to her and grabbed her hands.  "Stop trying to force it.  I know you're confused, and I'm only making this situation harder for you.  Maybe it was a mistake for us to come here."

"No," she said quickly, trying to ease his mind.  "It's not your fault, so don't blame yourself.  There must have been some reason why I wasn't attracted to you, but the longer I spend with you, the harder it is for me to figure it out."

"Your friend Kyle once told me that you had a thing for the bad boys," he offered hopefully.  "You really only knew me as Captain America, so I could see how you might think I was too squeaky clean for you."

She tilted her head as she studied him.  "So, you're telling me that Captain America is the Boy Scout, but Steve Rogers is secretly a bad boy?"

"Well, I did lie on my enlistment form more times than I care to count," he began with a smirk.  "Then there was that time I disobeyed a direct order to fly behind enemy lines to save my best friend from HYDRA.  We also can't forget the multitude of cars and motorcycles I stole in Nazi Germany.  And just recently, I was a fugitive on the run from every government agency in the world after I intercepted classified CIA intelligence and tried to help my best friend escape capture. . .not once, but twice in the same week."

"You're quite the rebel, aren't you?" she asked with an astonished grin.

"I'm not perfect," he clarified.  "The world sees that uniform and they assume things about me, but very rarely does anyone take the time to get to know the real me."

"I know it sounds ridiculous to say this," she began with all the sincerity she could muster, "but I'm glad I was attacked in the bookshop yesterday.  At least now, I can take the time to get to know you."

He let out a deep sigh.  "Would you think horribly of me if I told you I'd thought the same thing?"

She squeezed his hands and gave him an understanding smile.  "Absolutely not.  I'm just sorry that this situation is so unequally balanced."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his head tilting to one side as he tried to understand her train of thought.

"I mean, I'll get to know the real you, but you won't get a chance to know the real me," she explained with a frown.  "It's a little unfair, don't you think?"

He started to shake his head as he let go of one of her hands and laid his along her cheek.  "Your injury only affects your memories, not your personality.  Or at least that's what I gathered from Bruce's explanation yesterday.  Hopefully once your memories come back, you'll be able to merge the time before the accident with what's happening now and see what you've been missing out on all this time."

Her mouth fell open a fraction at his cocky statement, but she couldn't find it within herself to be angry.  Of course she'd remember how she felt about him now and that would change her initial opinion of him once she regained her memories, wouldn't it?  As the doubt continued to spread, her smile began to fade as her gaze shifted away from him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned at the sudden change in her demeanor.

She slowly brought her head back up to meet his eyes again, and her heart became heavy when she saw the worry swimming in those beautiful blue depths.  His face was like an open book, and she realized that anyone who cared to look could see every emotion play out across his features if they bothered to pay attention.  How many times had she caused him pain in the past month?  She must have been able to see it, but obviously she hadn't cared and that worried her more than anything right now.

She debated voicing her concerns, but he'd been so honest with her that she couldn't bear the thought of lying to him.  Taking a deep breath, she spoke her fears out loud.  "What if I get my memories back and I still hate you?"

The solemn look on his face told her that he'd also thought that scenario was a likely possibility and for a moment she hated herself for being so cruel to him.  She didn't deserve him – not before, and definitely not now – but a part of her was determined that she would spend the time they had together now to earn not only his friendship, but perhaps his love as well.

When he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace, she didn't fight him.  Her own arms slid around his waist and she leaned her head against his shoulder.  Being in his arms made her feel safe, and even though she felt guilty for accepting his protection, there was nothing she could do to stop herself.

They had eventually resumed cooking and breakfast had turned out to be better than either had expected – especially with the slightly charred sausage.  There had been moments while they'd finished preparing breakfast where one would accidentally brush up against the other, and they would both freeze as the sparks between them were ignited once again.  She knew she shouldn't enjoy the rush she felt every time his fingers grazed over hers, but that jolt of electricity coursing through her was like a drug and she was quickly becoming addicted.

Once they'd finally made it to the table with their food, the atmosphere changed.  The sexual tension between them abated as Steve entertained her with stories about the Avengers during their off time.  She had been dazzled by the thought of the elaborate parties Tony had thrown and charmed by the way they argued and bickered with one another like siblings.  She knew she'd never fit in with Steve's group of friends, but she reminded herself that he had been the one pursuing her, so he must have thought there was someway the two of them could blend their lives together.

As they were cleaning up the kitchen, Steve's phone began to ring.  He gave her an apologetic look before drying his hands on a towel and stepping away to answer the call.  She knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but he'd only walked a few feet away, and she was curious to learn what the Avengers had discovered since they'd been at the compound.

"Hello, Tony," Steve said as he leaned one hip against the breakfast bar separating the kitchen from the rest of the common area.  "We're doing fine.  There hasn't been a single breach along the perimeter – I think we're safely off the grid for now."

There was a moment of silence as Steve listened to what his friend had to say.  YN sneaked a few peeks over her shoulder as she continued to load the dishwasher, but all she saw was Steve nodding his head with a serious look on his face.  She'd seen that face yesterday when Bruce had been explaining her injury, and for some reason, she thought that was the face he wore when he was in superhero mode.  Studying the set of his features, she decided she preferred Steve's warm, lighthearted expression to the Captain's stern, no-nonsense look.

"I'll be sure to check it out," Steve told Tony.  "It'll be interesting to see how Bernard tries to spin that.  Has Nat had any luck finding out what Volt's been up to the past few months?"

Tony must have begun speaking again because Steve grew silent and continued his head nodding as he listened.  The call lasted a few more minutes and then Steve finally said goodbye and turned back to her.

"Tony is going to hold a press conference at noon today," Steve told her as he rounded the breakfast bar and came back into the kitchen to help her finish cleaning up.  "He's going to out Bernard for sending his men to attack you to get to me."

"Is that a good idea?" she asked, worried that Tony might antagonize the man even more.

Steve shrugged his shoulders as he began to explain.  "It seems as though the media has pounced on the idea that the Avengers might be up to some less-than-legal endeavors and Tony's trying to run interference before public opinion has completely shifted.  We haven't had the greatest track record these past few years and Tony thinks we need the media, and the public, on our side so he and Nat can have time to figure out who Volt is, what she's up to, and how Bernard figures into all of this."

YN put down the dish towel she'd just used to wipe off the counters and leaned back against the sink with a confused look on her face.  "Why is Volt such a mystery?  Wouldn't a woman with blue-tinted skin and hair stand out?"

Steve pursed his lips as he tried to figure out how to explain their theories on Volt.  "We don't think she's blue all of the time – only when she's using her powers.  Tony's theory is that she looks just like any other woman on the street the majority of the time and it's only when she's actively using electricity that she turns blue."

YN nodded in agreement before another thought came to her.  "What about facial recognition?"  She held up a hand as her brows knit together.  "Wait.  Is that even a thing, or am I just making it up?"

A wide grin spread across Steve's face.  "You're not making it up – it's a thing.  It's also the first thing Tony tried after he first encountered her.  I don't know all of the science behind it, but from what he and Bruce told us, when she's using her powers, images taken of her become distorted to the point that they're basically unusable.  I'm not sure if you noticed that this morning with the image they showed on the news.  Tony had FRIDAY run a search on the off chance something might pop up, but with the distortion, it came back with over ten thousand possible matches."

"Do you think she causes that distortion deliberately, or is it just a accident in her favor?" YN asked after she'd considered his explanation.

"I honestly have no idea," Steve answered with a sigh.  "It's frustrating, though."

"I can tell," she said, referring to the look on his face.

"It's not that I just want to catch her and put her on the Raft," he began.

"I'm sorry, what?" she interrupted.  "Did you say 'Raft?''"

Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head.  "Unfortunately, yes.  It's about as ridiculous as it sounds.  The Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross, had an elaborate floating prison created in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as a means of containing people who misused their super human abilities.  I don't agree with the idea, especially when there doesn't seem to be any due process involved before someone gets shipped off and inhumanely detained for the rest of their lives."

YN had watched the expression on his face morph from disdain to outright fury, and for a moment she wondered if that was the face his enemies saw.  She'd have to make it a point to never get on his bad side.  "You sound like you speak from experience."

"I wasn't a prisoner there, if that's what you mean," he told her, his mood lightening a bit.  "Let's just say I had a few friends there that didn't belong, and I negotiated an early release."

"By negotiate, do you mean you broke them out?"

The cocky look she was quickly coming to love appeared yet again before he answered.  "I believe in justice, and that wasn't justice."

"Why on earth would anyone think you were a Boy Scout?" she asked with a laugh.  "You are completely incorrigible."

He shook his head with a wry grin as he motioned for her to head toward the lounge area.  "I keep asking myself that same question."  He laughed with her for a bit before getting back to his point.  "As I was saying, I don't want to put Volt on the Raft.  I feel like there's more to her story than we know, but for some reason, she won't work with us."

"What makes you think that?" she asked as she curled up in one corner of a plush, curved red sofa and grabbed one of the overstuffed grey pillows to wrap her arms around.

Steve sat on the other end of the long sofa, hoping that putting some distance between them would help to keep things between them on a more platonic level.  "This whole development with Bernard raises more red flags than anything else.  Tony is focused on damage control, but that's what he's best at – usually because he's the one causing the damage.  Nat and Bucky are focused on finding out Volt's true identity, so that just leaves me to focus on Bernard's ulterior motive.  If he didn't have something to hide, then he wouldn't be so keen to shift the focus off of him and onto the Avengers.  It's purely a strategic move designed to keep everyone looking at everything else but him."

YN cocked her head as she considered his reasoning.  "It makes sense, but what do you think he's hiding?"

"I don't know," Steve said as he shook his head.  "But I refuse to believe that Volt hasn't been successful at least once since she came on the scene.  She's too good to fail every single time.  If I had to wager a bet, I'd say she hasn't failed at all, we just don't know what she's doing."

"Natasha mentioned something along those lines before we left yesterday," YN reminded him.

"She and I have had this conversation before, but Tony has her working through the list of potential matches to see if anything pops."  He took a deep breath.  "I'd have her focus her efforts on uncovering Volt's motives, but I'm not running this op and Tony thinks she covers her tracks too well."

"She must be really good if you guys can't figure out what she's up to," YN surmised.  "No wonder you want to try to bring her in and turn her."

"What?" Steve asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

YN gave him a knowing smile.  "You said you didn't want send her off to the Raft.  What else would you do with her?"

Steve took a moment to think about her words before shaking his head in disbelief and letting out a small huff.  "I never really thought about it that way, but yes, adding her to the team wouldn't be that bad of an idea."

"She's beautiful, isn't she?"

Steve's eyes conveyed the shock he was feeling as he stared at YN, his mouth slightly agape.  "I. . .I never. . .I mean. . .I guess. . .I don't know that I've ever looked at her like that."

A smile played at the corner of her lips.  "It's okay to think she's attractive, Steve.  You and I aren't exactly a thing. . ."  She gave a slight shrug and raised on eyebrow.  "At least not yet.  It would be perfectly natural for you to be attracted to a beautiful woman, especially one that can hold her own with you physically."

A blush began to creep up from beneath the collar of his shirt.  He wasn't sure if YN had been implying anything untoward, but his mind had immediately taken a nose dive into the gutter, and now he couldn't stop himself from conjuring up mental images of Volt.  Was he attracted to her?  Is that why he was so insistent that Tony not hurt her?  

He shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind.  Volt wasn't the woman he wanted to be with.  YN was, and she was here with him now – she was the one who was willing to get to know him.  The beginnings of a thought started to creep up from his subconscious, but before it could fully develop FRIDAY announced that it was time for the press conference to begin.  Whatever realization that was about to dawn on him evaporated as the AI switched on the TV and Tony walked across the small platform to begin speaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 8 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  I know you guys are probably frustrated that their kiss was interrupted, but you know how much I love a good angsty slow burn!! What did you think of YN’s theory about Steve being attracted to Volt? Do you think he secretly knows they’re the same woman, but refuses to believe it, or is he really just completely clueless? His brain had started working overtime there at the end, but of course he was interrupted! I guess we’ll just have to wait what happens when/if she gets her memories back!  I look forward to your comments!_


	9. Chapter 9

_"I've called you all here today, and you all know why," Tony began as he stood behind the podium filled with microphones in an expensive, custom-tailored Tom Ford suit. "Henri Bernard has made some allegations about me and the rest of my friends, and you all know how well I handle people making threats against me and my own."_

_He was interrupted by a barrage of questions from the dozens of reporters standing in front of him. He calmly held up a hand and waited for them to quiet down. "Like I said, I don't do well with threats. At least not when I'm on the receiving end. I'm actually pretty good at issuing them, though. And that's what I'm here to do today. I'm here to set the record straight about Henri Bernard and the actions he has taken in his paranoid-driven scheme to shift attention away from him and Sparky and onto the Avengers._

_"I'll be the first to admit that our team has made some mistakes in the past, but we've owned up to those mistakes. But to suggest that we are working with a criminal - and I can assure you that whatever Sparky is up to is criminal in nature – is a slap in the face."_

_Tony paused to pull out a small device and a few keystrokes later, he nodded toward the sea of reporters. "On your devices, you'll find the mugshots of two of Bernard's hired goons. Those two men broke into a local bookstore yesterday and accosted a young lady who just happens to be friends with Steve Rogers. Both of the men admitted to the authorities that they were sent by Bernard to harass this woman, and one can only assume it's because of her association with Captain Rogers._

_"Are these the actions of an upstanding businessman?" Tony asked the crowd, earning him a few shouts and many head shakes. "These are the actions of a man who has something to hide." Tony paused to take off his glasses and stare directly into the camera. "Take note boys and girls, here's the threatening part of today's press conference. I don't know what you're hiding, Bernard, but rest assured, I have some of the best minds in the world working on figuring out what it is. The Avengers have had a rough patch these past few years, but the band's back together and we're at the top of our game. You've messed with the wrong group of people, so you'd better be prepared to deal with consequences of your actions." With that being said, Tony put his glasses back on, flashed a peace sign to the crowd, and jogged down the stairs of the platform to the car where Happy was waiting with the door open._

Steve muted the TV and turned to gauge YN's reaction to the press conference. "So, that just happened."

"Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?" YN asked with a worried look on her face.

Steve looked exasperated. "Because Tony just called out a very powerful man who's already shown that he'll go to any means to get what he wants?"

"You're sure that we're safely off the grid?"

"I'm positive," he reassured her. "The public doesn't know this compound even exists, so we're safe here."

"What about everyone else?" she asked. "I'm sure that your friends have loved ones that Bernard might target."

Steve thought for a moment before replying. "We're not exactly known for having friends outside of our group." He ran a hand through his hair before continuing. "I guess that's one of the reasons why I was so attracted to you – you're a normal woman and I could use a little bit of normal in my life."

"Well, I guess that blew up in your face, didn't it?" she asked with a chuckle. "Head traumas and amnesia aren't exactly what I'd consider normal."

He gave her a resigned smile and shook his head. "No, I guess they're not. Maybe I'm not just not meant to have a normal life."

YN started to reply, when the scene on the TV changed, catching her eye. She motioned for Steve to unmute it so they could see the latest development.  A perky blonde news anchor in a sedate grey skirt and matching jacket was standing outside of Henri Bernard's uptown office building. 

_"Just a few minutes ago, Tony Stark issued a rebuttal to Henri Bernard's accusation that the Avengers were working with Sparky, who's loyalties have remained mysterious since she came onto the scene a few months ago. Mr. Stark alleged that two men, who have admitted to being employed by Mr. Bernard, attacked a young woman in a bookstore yesterday due to her association with Captain America. I'm here in front of Mr. Bernard's office where I've been informed he will be issuing a statement in a few moments."_

The scene shifted back to the broadcast studio where another set of reporters began to debate back and forth on what they thought Henri Bernard might say. One of the reporters found Tony's evidence to be damning for Bernard, but the other one was reluctant to let go of the idea that the Avengers were going rogue and taking justice into their own hands again.

"This is exactly what Tony is trying to prevent," Steve commented just before the camera switched back to the perky blonde.

Henri Bernard was walking down the stairs toward the small crowd of reporters that had gathered on the sidewalk in front of his building. He seemed to be annoyed, but Steve couldn't tell if it was because of what Tony had revealed, or that the crowd before him was smaller than the one Tony had garnered. There was another man hurrying along beside Bernard, frantically trying to get him to stop and listen, but Bernard just brushed him aside and continued down the stairs. Steve wondered if that was his lawyer, desperately trying to get him to keep his mouth shut – he hoped he wouldn't listen to him.

_"I don't need to remind you that Tony Stark is nothing more than a bully," Bernard began, puffing out his chest and trying to look important. "You have all heard it, not just a few minutes ago, but for years. I'm not sure where he dug up those men, but I have never seen either of them before in my life. . ."_

_"Jean Marc Legrand," said a familiar voice from the crowd. "Says here that he's your first cousin on your mother's side."_

_The camera shifted away from the crowd to show Tony leaning against a tree behind the reporters with a device in his hand. Bernard could be heard in the background sputtering in anger at having his moment in the limelight snatched away again by Tony Stark._

_"The other guy is Alexandre Dubois, and from what I can tell, he's your brother in law," Tony continued, one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. "Lie to me again about how you don't know these men." He looked toward the reporters and said, "That information is now on your devices as well. Feel free to fact check me."_

YN and Steve watched as Bernard desperately tried to backpedal from his previous statement, but the reporters were eating him alive at this point. Satisfied that Tony had succeeded in shifting the attention away from the Avengers and back on Bernard, he switched off the TV and turned back to look at YN. She was still sitting with her legs drawn up, clutching one of the throw pillows. She looked like a lost little girl, and every instinct Steve had was telling him to protect her at all costs. Then she looked at him, and her expression was anything but childlike. Her eyes raked over him and Steve was instantly taken back to that kiss in the kitchen.

"Well, that's one problem taken care of," she said with a sultry smile. "Any other pressing issues we need to address?"

Steve felt as though he'd been thrown back to a time when having a beautiful woman speak to him caused him to break out in a sweat. This is what he'd always wanted, so why was he so hesitant to let go and enjoy the time he had with her? _Because she's not herself right now_ , a little voice inside reminded him. 

Deciding that it was best if they pretended this morning never happened, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "You like to read."

A look of confusion came over her face. "What?"

"You like to read," he repeated, "but you've probably forgotten all of your favorite books. This is an ideal time for you to get caught up again."

She set aside the pillow and sat up straight on the sofa. "You're kidding, right?"

"I know there have been times when I've wished I could go back and read a book like it was the first time again," he continued as he walked to the entertainment center to browse the shelves of books various members of the team had left there once they'd finished them. "This is the perfect opportunity for you to do just that."

A sly smirk lifted the corners of her lips as she watched him nervously search through the shelf of books. The Boy Scout had made another appearance, completely disproving his earlier assurance that he was anything but. She was having a hard time being angry with him, though. It was kind of adorable to watch him flounder. Surmising that he was only confident of himself when he was in control, she tucked away that tidbit of knowledge and played along with idea.

"What would you recommend?" she asked as she joined him in front of the shelves.

"Actually, it's a book you recommended to me," he told her as he finally found the one he was looking for. "I bought it the first time I came into the shop, but then Tony had us come up here for some training exercise he wanted to try out, so I left it. This is _The Mortal Instruments_. It's actually a part of series, but the other books are back at the Tower."

She took the book from him and turned it over in her hands as she studied the dust jacket. "What's it about?"

"It's about this girl – who thinks she's a normal girl – but in reality she's a part of a long line of half-angel demon hunters," Steve began to explain.

YN watched as the light in his eyes grew brighter as he talked about the book. She had no recollection of being an avid reader, but Steve had assured her that she loved books. Why else would she have chosen to work in a bookstore after college? 

"Why didn't she know she was a half-angel demon hunter?" YN asked as she flipped open the cover to read the synopsis written within.

"I don't want to give away too many spoilers," Steve hedged, earning him a chastising look from her. "Okay, you asked. There was a huge battle and her mother ran away with her and hid the truth from her to keep her from danger. She even enlisted the help of a warlock to alter her memory so she wouldn't learn that she had supernatural powers."

"So she's a superhero, and she has no clue," YN deduced with a nod of approval. "Let me guess, there's a handsome guy involved that's going to help her discover her true self and teach her all she needs to know about being a demon hunter."

"Of course," Steve said with a faux serious look on his face. "But there's a twist. Don't ask me what it is, because I'm not ruining the ending for you. Just be prepared to have your socks knocked off."

She closed the book and gave him a questioning look. "What are you going to do while I'm reading?"

"I brought the series of books you sold me the other day," he said with a wistful smile. _"The Hunger Games."_

"What are those about?"

"I'm not really sure," he said, his eyebrows furrowing a bit. "You said I'd like them, and you haven't been wrong yet."

 

They each settled back into their respective corners of the couch with their books and soon they forgot the other was even there as they were transported into the fictional worlds they were reading about. YN found herself captivated by the story unfolding with each page that she turned. The characters were extremely well-written and complex and she loved the idea of a secret Shadow World existing just out of sight of the mundanes.

She was so caught up in her book that she didn't realize how much time had passed until her stomach began to growl. Embarrassment washed over her as her eyes darted to where Steve sat a few feet away from her. The grin on his face told her he'd heard, but he didn't seem ready to tease her about it just yet.

"I'm hungry too," he said as he placed a marker in his book and laid it on the glass coffee table in front of him. Looking at his watch, his eyes grew wide. "It seems like we missed lunch, so I guess it'll be an early dinner tonight."

She closed her book and laid it on the coffee table as well before she rose and followed him to the kitchen. "What would you like tonight?"

She hadn't said it in a flirtatious way, but for some reason Steve's mind had taken another dip. Turning to look at her, he couldn't help but think that all he wanted was her. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he opened the refrigerator to see what else Tony had provided for them. 

"There's some chicken breasts in here," he said as he peered around the corner toward the sky outside the wall of windows. "It looks nice enough out there to grill. We could throw some sweet potatoes on with the chicken and not have to worry about making a mess in here. Plus, we'll have the view of the lake while we eat."

"That sounds great," she agreed as she opened up the drawers looking for aluminum foil to wrap the potatoes.

"Do you want the chicken seasoned or barbecued?" Steve asked as he grabbed a plate to put the chicken on from the shelf beside the refrigerator.

She shot him a look of disbelief before answering. "Let's go with barbecued. I saw a jar of sauce on one of the shelves in the fridge."

The two of them worked in tandem once again as they prepared the food for the grill and then made their way toward the balcony that overlooked the lake. Steve immediately went to heat up the grill, but she walked all the way to the edge of the railing and looked out at the shimmering water glinting under the light of the sun that was slowly starting to slide toward the western horizon.

"It's so beautiful here," she said without turning back to him. "I can't understand why you'd want to stay in the city when you could have this view everyday."

Steve placed the chicken and the potatoes on the grill and closed the lid before joining her at the railing. "It is beautiful out here. I guess we all just grew up in the city, so that's home to us. This feels more like a vacation spot than a permanent home."

"Do you think you could ever be happy in a place like this?" she asked as she glanced his way.

He turned to look at her and was again mesmerized by the emotions swimming in her eyes. "It depends on who's living out here with me."

She knew she could press him on the matter, but she decided against it as she turned back to stare at the lake. She had a feeling he was talking about her, and while that made her feel all warm and tingly inside, she was still wary of what would happen if she ever got her memories back. It was one thing to flirt, but another thing altogether to even allude to a possible future together for them.

Pushing away from the railing, she gave him a smile and rubbed her hands on the legs of her pants. "I'm going to go fix us a salad to go with dinner. You okay staying out here to watch the grill?"

"Got it," he told her as she began walking back toward the glass doors leading inside. He let out a long breath and silently cursed himself for saying something so stupid. He knew there was no possibility for them to have a meaningful relationship as long as she didn't have her memories, and he just had to go and open his big mouth. He looked back out over the lake and allowed himself a moment to imagine what it would be like if the two of them didn't have obligations back in the city and they could stay out here forever. It was a dream, and he knew it. Unfortunately, he'd lost the right to dream the day he'd signed up for Project: Rebirth. He'd chosen this life, but he wondered if he had it all to do over again, if he would make the same choice knowing that he'd be giving up the opportunity to ever have a normal life.

 

Steve had seemed distant during dinner, but YN couldn't really figure out why. She knew things had gotten awkward as they'd looked out over the lake, but surely that couldn't still be bothering him. The shared some meaningless small talk as they'd eaten, and once the dishes were put in the dishwasher, they'd gone back to the couch to continue reading. 

Steve had turned in early, leaving her sitting on the couch by herself. Once he'd left, she'd found it hard to concentrate on her book and after rereading the same passage five times, she slammed the book closed and leaned her head back against the cushions. Staring at the ceiling for a while, she tried to understand the myriad of emotions raging through her. If she were honest with herself, she knew exactly what she wanted to do, but there was still a part of her that worried about what would happen when her memories returned. 

The inner turmoil continued for what felt like hours when she finally came to a decision. She knew her memories might pose a problem for them, but there was also a good possibility that she would never remember her life before waking up in Steve's arms in the back room of the bookstore. Was she really going to live the rest of her life waiting for something that might never come back, or did she want to throw caution to the wind and take a chance on what could possibly be the best thing that ever happened to her?

Quickly rising from the couch, she squared her shoulders and strode purposefully toward Steve's room. Her bravado began to fail once she found herself outside of his door, though. With her hand raised and ready to knock, she froze. What was she thinking? She'd only known this guy for thirty-six hours. But, she thought to herself, they had been a pretty amazing thirty-six hours and if that kiss was anything to go off of, the next few hours might just be the best of her life.

With her resolve firmly set again, she knocked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 9 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  What did you think of the press conference? Tony was definitely in his element! I love his snark! What did you think about the book he chose for her to read? I’m a huge fan and I just couldn’t ignore the parallels. They had an awkward moment overlooking the lake, but she didn’t let it stop her! Will Steve give in to his desire, or will he reject her? I look forward to your comments!_


	10. Chapter 10

Steve had been pacing the floor of his room, trying to talk himself out of going to her when he heard the knock.  Turning around, he stared at the door in disbelief.  He knew the odds of her coming to him to finish what they'd started in the kitchen this morning were slim to none, but a guy still had to hope.  Keeping a nonchalant look on his face, he crossed the room and turned the knob.

He was completely unprepared for what awaited him on the other side.  The raw desire in her eyes was enough to completely undo him.  Throwing caution to the wind, he framed her face in his hands and kissed her with all of the pent up emotion he'd been struggling to keep in check since the day he'd first met her.

She'd been surprised by the kiss, thinking that he'd balk at the idea of them moving so quickly, but she was happy to be proven wrong.  Not wanting to waste another second, she grabbed the waistband of his pants and pulled him closer to her as his lips left hers to kiss along her jaw and down the side of her neck.  Dizzy with passion, she lifted her arms to wrap them around his neck.

His hands slid down her ribs to circle around her back, pulling her even closer to him as his lips branded every square inch of skin exposed by the scooped neck of her tunic top.  Throwing her head back, she let out a moan as his tongue dipped into the hollow where her neck met her collarbone.  

Threading her fingers through the thick, blond tresses at the nape of his neck, she tugged gently until he met her gaze.  "More," she demanded.

His eyes darkened at her dictate, and he slowly slid his hands down her back until he could grasp the backs of her thighs.  She knew what he was about to do, so she interlaced her fingers together behind his neck and held on as he effortlessly lifted her into his arms.  Her legs immediately wrapped around his waist as he turned and walked back into his room.  Slamming the door behind him, he made his way to the bed on the other side of the room, and unceremoniously dumped her in the center.

Stifling a giggle at his show of masculinity, she propped herself up on her elbows and watched as he began to undress.  Without breaking eye contact with her, he reached behind his head and grasped the neckline of his shirt.  In one fluid motion, he had it off and she was finally able to admire the muscular torso that had been so nicely outlined this morning through the skintight Under Armour shirt.  Her mouth watered a bit as she imagined getting her hands and mouth on the taut skin on display before her.

While she'd been distracted by his bulging biceps and rock hard abs, he'd continued shedding clothes as his pants and socks joined the shirt on the floor.  When he was left only in a ridiculously tight pair of boxers briefs, he kneeled on the bed and began to crawl toward her.  Feeling extremely overdressed, she sat up and began to pull her top over her head, but he stopped her.  

"Let me," he said, his voice deep and husky.

She slowly dropped her arms as she shifted her legs up under her so that she was sitting back on her heels.  Suddenly a bit nervous, she gave him a weak smile and waited to see what he would do next.  She was expecting him to start kissing her again, but he surprised her by lifting one hand to her face and gently cupping her cheek.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Her heart was pounding so loud in her ears, she thought for a moment that she'd only imagined the question, but there was no denying the tender look on his face as his gaze raked over her.  She didn't know how to respond, but it seemed as though he wasn't looking for an answer as he twisted his hand and grazed his knuckles along the curve of her jaw.

With every touch of his fingers against her increasingly sensitive skin, she became even more breathless.  By the time his hands made it down to the hem of her shirt, she felt as though she was going to explode from frustration.  When she felt him slide the material up, she lifted her arms to allow him to slip it over her head.  With one flick of his wrist, it joined the ever-increasing pile of clothes at the foot of the bed.  For some reason, she found this to be hilarious and she bit her lip to keep from laughing.  

Her jovial mood was squashed as her eyes returned to his and she saw the raw, naked desire swimming in the blue depths that had turned the color of midnight.  His eyes focused on the bare flesh he'd just exposed, but she didn't feel violated by his hungry gaze.  Instead, she felt empowered that just the sight of her could bring him to this point.

He moved toward her then, his bare chest brushing against hers as he slipped a hand behind her back to support her as he slowly lowered her back to the bed.  She didn't question him, but allowed him to set the pace.  Anxious to see what he would do next, she reached behind her for a pillow and interlaced her fingers behind her head as she gave him a sultry smirk.

A low, throaty growl rose up from within him as he watched her tease him.  He shouldn't have been surprised that her snarky personality would show up here, but somehow it was different when it had an edge of sensuality.  Not ready to give in to her yet, he slipped his fingers beneath the band of her leggings and began to slowly slide them down her legs, his hands exploring every inch of her legs as he continued his journey downward.

Once the leggings had joined the pile, he slowly crawled back up the bed, his almost naked body grazing roughly over hers as his lips left a trail of hot, open-mouthed kisses from her abdomen to her neck.  When his face was level with hers again, he gripped her jaw and waited for her eyes to open and meet his gaze again.  Leaning down, he captured her mouth again as her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands began to explore the hard planes of his shoulders and chest.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, completely wrapped around one another and lost in a kiss that threatened to send them both over the edge, but eventually he began to pull away.  Grazing a finger down the side of her face, he studied her as one might a piece of artwork in a museum.  The look on his face could only be described as reverence.  Her heart swelled as emotion began to well up within her.  She took a deep breath as she waited to see what his next move would be.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she tried to figure out what had caused him to ask this question now.  "Why wouldn't I be?"

He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers for a moment before meeting her gaze again.  "I was looking at you, and thinking about how perfect you are, and I started to think. . ."

"This is not the time to be thinking," she teased as she interrupted him.

That adorable grin she'd come to love in such a short of amount of time spread across his face before he spoke again.  "I know, but I thought of something I hadn't considered before."

Confusion was written all over her face as she tried to understand his train of thought.  "What do you mean?"

A bashful look replaced the grin as he dropped his chin and looked up at her through his thick lashes.  "It's just that. . .I mean, what if. . .you know. . .this is. . ."

He trailed off as she struggled to understand what he was trying to say.  When realization hit, her eyes grew wide and she struggled to stifle the laughter that threatened to potentially ruin the mood.  "I don't think that's a possibly."

"How can you be sure?"

She started to speak, but then closed her mouth as she tried to find a way to put it into words for him.  "You told me that my best friend said I had a thing for bad boys."

"That doesn't mean. . ." he protested.

"I know it doesn't, but does it really matter?" she interrupted, already tired of this conversation and ready to continue what they'd started.

"It does to me," he told her with an earnest look.

She took a deep breath and leaned her head back in frustration.  "Okay, let me put it this way.  It doesn't matter if this is my first time, or my fiftieth – tonight is going to be the most memorable night of my life either way.  I know we're both worried that my feelings might change if I get my memories back, but what happens if they never come back?  Do I keep living my life, waiting for something that may never happen?  Do I deny myself the chance to experience new things because I'm scared the 'real' me might not approve?  I don't want to live that way, Steve."

Seeing the sincerity in her eyes, he knew she meant exactly what she'd just told him, and he couldn't find fault with her logic.  He was still hesitant to keep going, but he wasn't sure how to let her down gently now that they'd gotten to this point.

She saw the moment he'd decided to put on the brakes, but she wasn't having it.  Gripping his face between her hands, she forced him to look into her eyes.  "I came to you, remember?  I want this, and I know you do, too."

"Of course I want this."

"Then shut up and kiss me, you idiot," she said as she pulled his mouth down to hers and poured every ounce of emotion she had into the kiss.

He broke away from her, and she felt him start to untangle himself from her arms.  She wanted to hold on to him, to force him to stay with her, but she knew if he wasn't one hundred percent in, it wouldn't be right to keep pushing him.  When he rose from the bed, she closed her eyes and let out a huff of frustration.  It wasn't until she heard the drawer of his bedside table open that she glanced over to see what he was doing.  Watching him tear open the top of the cardboard box and pull out a small silver packet had a smile spreading across her face again.

Within minutes, the pile of clothes at the base of the bed was complete and he was back in her arms again.  She knew he was being careful with her, just in case, but she couldn't find it in her to complain too much.  His touch was light, but firm, and with every sweep of his fingers against her flesh, she felt pings of electricity flowing within her.  It was as though her skin was alight with fire and only his touch could quench the flames.

When they'd finally tired themselves out, he'd lain beside her and trailed his fingers over her skin, not ready to let her go just yet.  She was too exhausted, and too satisfied to do much more than bask in the afterglow of their lovemaking.  Her eyes drifted shut and she was on the verge of falling asleep when she felt his hand tugging at her.

"What?" she asked with a whine. 

"C'mon," he said as he slowly pulled her to her feet.  "We need to shower before we fall asleep."

"I recognize the logic behind that plan, but is it really necessary?"  She watched him shake his head as he turned her toward the bathroom and gave her a gentle nudge.  She looked over her shoulder and saw him reaching into the box again.  "What are you doing?"

With a smirk and a one-shouldered shrug he said, "Might as well take advantage of the situation."

"You can't possibly be. . ." she began as her eyes drifted downward.  With a wide eyed look she felt a second wind coming on, and grabbed his hand before pulling him along with her.

 

YN awoke slowly, languishing in the feeling of contentment that engulfed her, but not remembering why she should feel that way.  She was warm and so relaxed it was as if her bones had turned to liquid.  Knowing she should move, but unable to work up the energy to do so, she lay completely still and enjoyed the peace and serenity of the morning.

When the somewhat firm pillow beneath her head began to move, she made a noise of protest and tried to fluff it back into shape with a half-hearted punch.  The pillow began to vibrate beneath her ear and it wasn't until she heard the deep, throaty laughter that followed that she realized that her pillow wasn't a pillow after all.  Peeking out from one slitted eye, she looked up to see Steve's brilliantly blue sparkling with laughter.  His facial hair had grown even more overnight and he had the beginnings of  beautiful, dark blond beard forming.  In a few days, it would be perfect.

"Stop moving," she muttered as she wriggled against him to find a more comfortable spot.

"I need to get up," he told her as he ran the back of his hand down the side of his face.

"No you don't," she argued.  "Just close your eyes and go back to sleep.  I'm too comfortable to move right now."

He let out another chuckle and slid out from beneath her, despite the noises of protest she made.  He made his way to the pile of clothes at the foot of the bed and found his pants.  Once he'd pulled them on, he turned back to look at her sprawled across his bed, the sheet only covering her from the waist down as she lay on her stomach with her hands stacked together under her cheek.  She looked rumpled, but content, and he couldn't help the sense of pride that welled within him when he remembered that he had been the one to bring her to that state.

"Stop staring," she said, not bothering to look at him.

"What. . ." he began.

"I can feel you undressing me with your eyes," she said, interrupting his train of thought.  "It's creepy."

He gave her a chiding look, but it was lost on her since she still hadn't bothered to meet his gaze.  "First of all, you're not wearing any clothes, so it's kinda hard for me to undress you anymore than you already are.  And secondly, you're in my bed – I can stare at you all I want."

One eye popped open and she glared at him.  "Touché.  I'm still not getting up."

Feeling pretty sure of himself, he kneeled on the of the bed and braced his hands on either side of her as he leaned down to slowly kiss along the outline of her spine.  By the time he'd made it halfway up her back, she was almost purring and he knew he accomplished what he'd set out to do.

"There'll be more of that later if you get up and come join me in the gym," he told her as he abruptly rose from the bed, earning him another round of protests.

By the time he'd exited the bathroom, she was gone.  He could see from the now-scattered pile of clothes that she'd dug through and retrieved her items before heading back to her room.  Not certain if she planned to join him, or go back to bed, he grabbed a new shirt and a pair of socks from the drawer of his dresser.  Once he was dressed for his morning run, he opened the door and peered down the hall toward her room.  The door was open, but he didn't hear any movement.  Assuming that she'd gone back to bed, he headed downstairs.

As he approached the gym, he was surprised to hear the TV blaring over top of the sound of a treadmill.  His eyebrows rose as he nodded to himself.  He paused just inside the door so he could admire the view before him.  She'd probably accuse him of being a creeper again, but he just couldn't help himself – he loved looking at her.  There might be some that would say she wasn't beautiful, but to him she was everything he'd always dreamed of when he thought about marrying and settling down some day.  And after last night, those dreams were becoming more difficult to contain.

She finally noticed him leaning against the door and silently shook her head as she rolled her eyes at him.  "Are you planning on running this morning, or just gawking at me all day?"

"I can do both, can't I?" he asked with a smirk as he walked over to the treadmill next to hers and began to set the speed.  "Any new developments this morning?"

She shook her head.  "Not really.  The media's opinion has definitely shifted and they say they are actively investigating Bernard's business dealings as well as his cousin and brother-in-law to see if he's used them to strong-arm others in the past.  So far, none of them have mentioned Tony or the Avengers other than to say that they are no longer considered to be working with Volt." She turned and gave him a shrug.  "Still no word on her – she's been MIA since the night before I was attacked."

Steve nodded his head.  "She does that – disappears for a few weeks in between break-ins.  We've tried everything we can to track her, but once she's underground, she's impossible to find."

"What do you think she's up to?" YN asked, realizing that she'd never asked him his own personal opinion on the mysterious renegade.  "You've said before that you think the team should be focused on figuring out her motives."

"I have a few theories, but nothing concrete," he told with a shrug as he began to pick up her pace.  "I don't really understand the type of businesses these men run, so I can't say for certain what she's doing."

Not really satisfied with his answer, but knowing when to drop a subject, she turned back to the TV and let him find his rhythm.  She was feeling good, and thought about bumping the speed up a bit, but then she remembered his promise from earlier.  It wouldn't do for her to tire herself out now when she had plans for more strenuous exercise later in the morning.

She flipped through the news stations, but they were all running similar stories with no real information about Bernard, so she found a station that played music and bumped up the volume.  She had no idea what type of music she'd liked before, but she was enjoying the upbeat tempo of the one playing, so she left it on that station to finish out her workout.

Steve was struggling to concentrate on keeping himself centered on the treadmill.  Ever since she'd turned on the music, she'd started swaying and moving to the beat as she strolled along at a modest pace beside him.  Her every move had been distracting to him before, but now that he'd had her in his arms – now that he knew what it was like to hear her calling out his name as she came undone beneath him – he found that he couldn't stop thinking about having her naked and writhing in his arms again.  His heart rate began to skyrocket and he could feel sweat starting to break out all over his body, but it wasn't from the physical exertion of the run.

Switching off the treadmill, he hopped down and hit the stop button on hers before scooping her into his arms and heading toward the mats in the center of the room.  She let out a cry of surprise, but once she saw the look in his eyes, hers had grown dark with passion and he knew she was on the same page as him.

Dropping to his knees, he laid her down and moved over her so that his hips were cradled between hers.  Her legs immediately wrapped around his as he captured her mouth in a kiss that was fueled with longing and desperation.  Clothes were ripped off of one another as they frantically tried to sate their need to be skin to skin.

He was just about to pull her sports bra over her head when they were interrupted by a lilting, slightly computerized Irish voice echoing throughout the large open space.

"Stealth Mode has been engaged."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 10 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! Were you surprised that Steve didn’t protest too much? (͡° ͜ʖ ͡ ) Now it seems like the two of them can’t get enough of each other! FRIDAY’s interruption at the end was untimely, but what do you think is going to happen next?  I look forward to your comments!_


	11. Chapter 11

"What is Stealth Mode?" YN asked as her eyes grew large and she craned her neck to look back toward the wide wall of windows behind her.

"I have no idea," Steve said as he rose, pulling her to her feet with him.  "It can't be good though."  

Still holding her hand, he started toward the door.  Pushing her against the wall, he opened the door and peered out into the hallway.  "What's the situation FRIDAY?  How many hostiles?"

FRIDAY answered immediately, her tone still as calm and serene as before.  "There's no situation, Captain Rogers."

Steve's brow furrowed as he looked toward YN to see if she'd heard the same thing he had.  "What do you mean there's no situation?  Why did you enact Stealth Mode?"

"Stealth Mode is a protocol created by Mr. Stark that turns off all recording devices in the Compound for when Mr. Stark and Ms. Pott's are – and I quote – 'gettin' busy,'" FRIDAY explained.

YN's hand flew to her mouth, but she wasn't quick enough to stifle the burst of laughter that had welled up within her at FRIDAY's explanation.  Steve put his hands on his hips and dropped his head with a sigh.

"That's not on the list of protocols Tony gave us when we started training out here," Steve said to the AI, hoping for an explanation.

"No, Captain Rogers," FRIDAY said.  "Stealth Mode is a private protocol that can only be initiated by Mr. Stark or Ms. Potts."

Steve still wasn't satisfied with the answer, so he asked the AI one last question.  "Okay, I get that Tony has secret protocols, but why did you initiate Stealth Mode for me and YN?"

The AI was quick to respond.  "Mr. Stark rewrote the protocol two days ago to include you and Ms. YLN."

With a look of horror, Steve turned to YN and held up both hands.  "I swear I had no idea that protocol even existed, or that Tony reprogrammed FRIDAY to initiate it when we. . ."

He trailed off, but she'd gotten the gist of what he was saying.  Now that the perceived danger had passed, she felt like she could breath easier, but the adrenaline was still coursing through her veins.  Deciding that it would be a shame to waste the natural high she was on, she started sauntering toward Steve.  He was still recovering from his embarrassment so it was easy to maneuver him so that his back was against the wall.  Once she had him where she wanted, she leaned in and placed a kiss on his chest.  She could feel his heart pounding beneath her lips and as she slipped a hand under the waistband of his pants, she could've sworn it skipped a beat.

"You're not mad?" he asked, his voice husky with lust.

"What's to be mad about?" she asked as she trailed her lips up his chest and over his shoulder.  "Tony was just being a good friend."

His hands gripped her hips as he pulled her flush against him.  "I don't want you to think that I only brought you out here to seduce you."

Her lips finally made it to his mouth, and she begun to rake her fingernails over his abs.  "If I recall correctly, I was the one who seduced you."

"I do believe you're right," he conceded before wresting control from her and twisting them so that she was the one with her back against the wall.  "Speaking of seduction, we were in the middle of something before FRIDAY so rudely interrupted us."

"That we were," she said with a teasing wink.  "I just have one question, though."

He paused to lean back and look at her.  "What's that?"

"Do you want to continue this here, in your bed, or in the shower?"

 

He'd picked the first option, followed by the third, and then decided that the second option sounded good after all.  She was now sprawled across the bed, unable to work up enough energy to move.  Her body wasn't able to function, but her mind was fully alert.  She knew it was of no use to try to force her memories to come back, but she desperately wanted to know why she hadn't been attracted to Steve.  After the past fifteen hours, she was ready to admit that her former self had been the biggest idiot to ever live.  There was no way any other man had been half the lover Steve was.  She knew he was holding back with her a bit due to his enhanced strength, but there were times when he'd been caught up in the moment and she'd experienced the full force of his intense passion.  So far, she had nothing to complain about.

"What are you thinking about over there?" he asked from his side of the bed where he'd collapsed after the third round of lovemaking that morning.  "Your thoughts are so loud, I can't hear myself think."

She forced herself to roll onto her side to face him as she trailed a finger over the muscles of his back.  When he let out a muffled yelp, she quickly drew her hand back.  "What did I do?"

"You shocked me," he told her with a laugh as he rolled onto his side to face her.  "I'm not sure what's up with the atmospheric pressure, but it's been happening all morning." He tilted his head and thought for a moment.  "It happened a few times last night, too."

Rolling her eyes at him, she sat up and pushed him over onto his back as she swung a leg over his hips and grazed her hands over his slightly hairy chest.  "Friction causes static electricity as well, you know?"

He sat up quickly and wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her from falling backward from his sudden movement.  "Is that so?  I guess I'll just have to get used to as long as I'm not shaving."

Her hands cupped his scruffy jaw as she placed a kiss on his lips.  "Have I told you how sexy this beard is getting?"

"No, you haven't," he told her with a smile.  "But please do continue."

She rubbed her thumbs along his jaw and gave him a serious look.  "It's a little rough right now, but it'll get softer once it grows out a little."

"Is it too rough?" he asked, instantly concerned that he'd caused her any discomfort.

"No.  In fact, I love the way it feels when you. . ." She leaned over and whispered the rest in his ear causing him to blush so badly that it extended halfway down his chest. 

"You still haven't told me what you were thinking about," he reminded her, trying desperately to change the subject.  

"What if I told you I had been thinking about that?" she asked with a teasing grin.

He cocked one eyebrow and pursed his lips.  "I'd say you were lying."

"Okay," she conceded as she took a deep breath.  "I was thinking about our relationship before the accident – or our lack of one."

"I told you not to force it," he reminded her.

"I know," she said with a huff.  "But it just doesn't make any sense."  Her expression became serious as she gripped his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.  "Promise me something."

He saw the seriousness of her expression and braced himself for what she was about to say.  "What?"

She took a deep breath.  "Promise me that I get my memories back and I go back to hating you that you'll push me up against the nearest wall and kiss me until I come to my senses."

He leaned back his head and let out a deep breath.  "I am not going to force myself on you, YN."

"No," she said holding up a finger to make her point.  "You won't be forcing me.  I'm asking you to do it.  I might need to be reminded of your sexual prowess."  She stopped and her eyebrows drew together in confusion.  "By the way, where exactly did you pick up some of those moves?  I know you said you're no Boy Scout, but you're a little kinky for a guy who was born in the early twentieth century."

It was his turn to be confused.  "What do you mean?  Did I do something wrong?"

"No, absolutely not," she quickly assured him.  "Forget I said anything."

He shook his head.  "No, we're going to talk about this.  I need to know."

She considered him for a moment before continuing.  "I'm going to ask you a question, but you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. . ." She waited until he nodded that he understood.  "How many women have you been with?"

He could feel the blush start to creep up from his chest to inflame his cheeks.  "Was it that bad?"

"You're kidding, right?" she asked in disbelief.  "If it had been bad, do you really think I'd still be in your bed?"

"Okay," he said, still unsure about himself.  "It's only been you and Peggy."

She nodded her head and felt a moment of pity that there'd only been two women in his life that he'd trusted enough to get close to, and she had done everything she could to push him away before her accident.  "I'm assuming you were Peggy's first?"  When he gave a slight nod, she took a moment to think.  When realization dawned, she closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from laughing.  "Let me guess, Bucky was the one to tell you about the birds and the bees?"

He wasn't sure where she was going with this, but he answered her honestly.  "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"You learned all you know about sex from the most notorious skirt chaser in all of Brooklyn," she reminded him with a smile.  "Do you really think Bucky Barnes is into vanilla sex?"

"Oh," he said, as he realized that she was right.  "I had no idea, I swear.  I thought. . ."

"It's fine," she said, interrupting him before he apologized again.  "I promise you that I'm not complaining.  To be honest, I had no idea I was that flexible.  I must've done Yoga or Pilates or something."

"You're really not upset?" he asked, worried that he'd taken things too far, too fast with her.

"How about this?" she asked.  "Why don't we go grab something quick to eat and then I can show you how _not_ upset I am in the shower again?"

She saw his eyes begin to darken and she knew if she didn't move quickly enough, there would be no food and no shower anytime soon – not that it would be a bad thing, but she was starving.  Pushing him back, she slipped out of the bed and began looking for something to wear since she didn't trust him to keep his hands to himself if she didn't have at least one layer of clothing between them.

Steve rolled to his side and watched her roam around the room looking for something to put on.  "There are some regular boxers in the bottom right hand drawer and some old t-shirts in the bottom left."

As she searched through the drawers to find something to suit her, he took advantage of the opportunity to take in the sight of her.  Every line and curve of her body was perfect in his opinion, but he was still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she was here and she seemed just as hungry for his touch as he was for hers.  All of her talk about her memories coming back and the possibility that she would go back to hating him again weighed heavily on his heart.  What would he do if she suddenly woke up one morning and decided that she didn't want to be with him anymore?

"Are you going to lay there all day, or are you coming to breakfast with me?" she asked once she'd found something to wear.

He focused his attention back on the present.  She was standing at the foot of the bed with her hands on her hips and wearing one of his old S.H.I.E.L.D. t-shirts.  It was faded and stretched out, but on her, it looked amazing.  "Remind me to have you wear my clothes more often.  They look much better on you."

She rolled her eyes and threw a pair of pants at him.  "Food, then sex.  You may be a superhero, but I'm not and I need energy if we're going to keep this up all day."

Not waiting for him to respond, she headed toward the door.  She hadn't been joking when she'd said she was starving, so when she walked into the kitchen, she went for the first thing she found.  Pulling out a couple of bowls and spoons, she laid the box of cereal beside them on the counter and went back to the fridge for the milk.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked when he finally joined her.

"I grabbed the Raisin Bran," she told him as she bumped the fridge shut with her hip and placed it next to the other items she'd laid out.  "You seemed like a Raisin Bran kind of guy."

He picked up the box of cereal and turned it over in his hands, a confused look on his face.  "And what kind of guy is that?"

She'd walked to the other side of the kitchen to choose some fruit to go with their cereal and as she turned around, she used the banana in her hand to gesture to all of him.  "Healthy and responsible."

"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a compliment or an insult," he told her as she grabbed the box from his hands and began to pour some cereal into each bowl.

"It's a compliment," she said with a roll of her eyes before leaning over and giving him a quick kiss.  "By the way, I wanted to thank you for always remembering to be responsible. . .although I'm a little worried that at the rate we're going, we might run out soon."

He felt the blush rise up from beneath the collar of his shirt as he closed his eyes.  "Bucky gave me four boxes before he left the other night."

She tried to hold in her laughter as she nodded her head and poured the milk on the cereal.  "Your friends are perverts, you know that?"

He peeked up at her from beneath his lashes and was relieved to see the smile on her face as she put the milk back in the refrigerator.  "Nat picked them up when she went shopping for you, so you can't just blame the guys."

Her eyes grew large as she handed him a bowl of cereal and a banana.  "That explains how you ended up with the Pleasure Pack."

 

After they'd finished breakfast and went another round in the shower, they'd ended up on the couch with their books.  YN was lying lengthwise with her back against the armrest and her legs draped over Steve's lap as he sat perpendicular to her.  She was almost at the end of her book and she could see Steve was getting close as well, but the activities of the morning were starting to catch up to them and she doubted either of them would finish their books before they fell asleep.

 

_Steve awoke suddenly, disoriented and confused.  He and YN were lying in bed with only the thin sheet to cover them.  The sun was starting to slip below the horizon and the sky above him visible through the skylight was a myriad of oranges and pinks.  YN was lying on her stomach, her shoulders bare above the edge of the sheet._

_"She's beautiful isn't she?"_

_Steve recognized the voice and looked over his shoulder to find Volt leaning against the door jam.  Arcs of electricity were jumping from one finger to the other on one hand as she smirked at him from across the room.  "What are you doing here?  How did you get past FRIDAY?"_

_She brushed off his questions with a wave of her hand, sending sparks flying as she did so.  "Pfft.  There's no security system that can stop me, my dear Captain."_

_Steve started to rise from the bed, but she waved a finger at him and made a tsk-tsk sound.  Realizing that he didn't have any clothes on, he pulled the sheet tighter around his waist and glared at her._

_She walked around the bed and stopped by YN's still-sleeping form.  Crouching down, she brushed a finger down the side of YN's cheek.  "You didn't answer my question, Captain.  Do you think she's beautiful?"_

_"Don't even think about hurting her, Volt," he threatened, his voice deep and serious._

_"I could no more hurt her than I could hurt myself," she said with a disappointed shake of her head._

_Steve longed to break every finger in Volt's hand for daring to lay a finger on YN, but he knew he was in no condition to fight her as he was.  Deciding that playing along with her might be his wisest option, he answered her.  "She's the most beautiful woman in the world.  There, are you happy?"_

_Volt looked up at him and cocked her head.  "I'm satisfied, but am I happy?"_

_Steve's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out her cryptic answer.  "Your happiness is of no concern to me."_

_Volt raised a hand to lay over her heart.  "You're breaking my heart."  Her eyes grew serious as she considered him for a moment.  Rising, she walked back around the bed until she was standing in front of him,  just out of arms length.  "Do you think I'm beautiful?"_

_He was taken aback at her question.  Why on earth would she be asking him if he thought she was beautiful?  They were enemies for heaven's sake – she regularly referred to him as her nemesis.  "Why does it matter?"_

_"It's the only question that truly matters," she said as she leaned over and ran one blue-tinged finger over his scruffy beard._

_"Ow," he said with a start as he pulled away from her.  "I guess hurting me isn't too far of a stretch for you?"_

_She drew back her hand and brought it up to her lips as she gave him an apologetic look.  "I'm so sorry, Captain.  Did I shock you?"_

_"What do you want?" he demanded, finally growing tired of her game._

_"The truth," she said, her eyes full of sincerity.  "I only want the truth."_

_He was starting to lose his patience.  "What truth?"_

_"Do you think I'm beautiful, Captain?" she asked again, letting out a huff of frustration.  "Could you ever love me the way that you love her?"_

_Steve's eyes grew large as his gaze quickly turned back to YN.  Was Volt right?  Did he love YN?  He turned back to Volt, but she was no longer there._

_"You haven't answered me yet, Steve."_

_He turned back to YN, but she wasn't there.  In her place was Volt, laying the same way YN had been a few moments before.  "Where's YN?  What have you done with her?"_

_"She's where she's always been, Steve," Volt answered with a sad look on her face.  "You just need to look a little harder."_

 

Steve jolted awake causing the book he'd been holding in his hand to clatter loudly on the hardwood floor.  His breath was ragged, and he felt like he had all those years ago when he'd still suffered from asthma attacks.  He'd awoken YN and she was leaning over him and saying something, but the blood rushing through his ears was drowning out her words.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on drawing oxygen into his lungs as he struggled to hold on to the dream – or rather, nightmare – that he'd just had.  But just like most dreams, the harder he tried to remember it, the faster it began to fade away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 11 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  Were you the least bit surprised that Tony had a special protocol built into FRIDAY's programming?? (͡° ͜ʖ ͡ ) Things seem to be going well for our two protagonists, but then Steve had that dream! What do you think it means? I look forward to your comments!_


	12. Chapter 12

She'd fallen asleep with her book on her chest and it wasn't until he'd jerked beneath her and the book had clattered loudly to the floor that she'd realized something was wrong.  His brow was furrowed and there were beads of sweat forming along his temples.  She immediately knew that he was having a nightmare.  She wasn't sure how he would react, but she knew she had to wake him up somehow.  Twisting around so that she was straddling his thighs, she framed his face in her hands and began to call out his name.  

"Steve.  Steve, please talk to me."  YN kept repeating his name over and over again.  She wasn't sure how many times she begged him to wake up, but by the time his eyes finally opened, there were tears running down her cheeks.

Now he was awake, but he still wasn't with her yet.  She could see the faraway look in his eyes as she desperately tried to get him to focus on her face and the sound of her voice.  "It was just a dream, Steve.  You need to listen to me, please."

The sound of his pounding heart started to fade as her voice began to pierce through his consciousness.  He looked into her terrified eyes and saw the tears streaming down her face as she begged him to hear her.  With a painful sigh, he cupped the back of her head and pulled her into his shoulder as he began to rock back and forth.

"It's okay," he crooned into her ear.  "It was just a bad dream.  Please don't cry, I'm alright."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly, scared that if she let go, he'd slip back into the trance-like state he'd been in when he'd awoken.  She knew she should be the one comforting him, but she needed the solace of his arms as much as he needed hers.  

The two of them stayed locked in their embrace for what seemed like an eternity before Steve finally pulled away, his fingers tilting her chin so he could look into her eyes and make sure that she was okay.  Swiping a thumb across her cheek, he wiped away the last of the tears before placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Are you okay?" he asked.  "I'm sorry I scared you."

"I'm fine," she told him, her voice a little raspy from both the tears and screaming his name over and over.  "What about you?"

He shook his head slightly.  "My nightmares are pretty rough – it's a side effect of the serum.  My dreams seems so much more real than they did before."  He gave her an apologetic look.  "I'm sorry, YN.  I should have warned you."

"It's not your fault," she told him as she laid her hands along the side of his face.  "I'm just sorry that you have to go through that."  She paused as she lightly ran her thumbs over his cheekbones.  "Do you want to talk about it?"

He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes.  Normally he tried his best to put the disturbing images of his nightmares out of his mind as quickly as possible so they didn't continue to haunt him throughout the day, but this dream was different than his normal nightmares.  For years following his removal from the ice, his mind had insisted on making him relive some of the worst moments of the war – Bucky strapped to the table in Zola's laboratory, Bucky falling from the train, his last kiss with Peggy before going after Red Skull, and his eventual plummet into the icy depths of the Arctic.  Once he'd learned of Bucky's fate after the fall, his mind had concocted elaborate scenarios of torture, and even once, he'd dreamt that the Winter Soldier had come for him again, but he hadn't been able to get through to Bucky in time.  This nightmare had been different, though.  It had been about her.  He'd never even dreamed about her before, so having her and Volt in the same nightmare had been a double dose of shock for his system.

"I can't remember all of the details," he told her, finally able to find the words.  "I just know that you and Volt were in it.  She was threatening to hurt you, I think."

She increased the pressure of her hands along his face to bring his attention back to her.  "Volt can't hurt me.  She has no idea where we are, and even if she did, FRIDAY wouldn't let her in."

YN's words brought back a flash of the dream, and Steve remembered what Volt had said.  "I'm not too sure about that.  I think we've been underestimating her powers, and I'm pretty sure Volt doesn't mind that at all."

"Okay, maybe she can break through FRIDAY's protocols," she conceded with a sigh.  "But she'd have to know where we were first.  And why would she even care?  You've said so yourself, she tries to avoid you and the rest of the team.  I truly doubt she'd come looking for you, or me, for that matter.  Bernard is the one after me, not Volt, and Tony has done a great job discrediting him with the media – and hopefully alerting the authorities to his shadier dealings."

"You're right," Steve said as he gave her a weak smile.  "I guess I just don't handle threats against the people I love that well – even if they're only in a dream."

Her mouth dropped open slightly.  Had he really meant what he said?  Did he love her?

Steve saw the look of shock on her face, and he went over his words again in his mind.  When he realized what he'd said, he started to deny it, but he stopped himself.  Another part of the dream came back to him, and he remembered Volt asking him if he could ever love her the way he loved YN.  His subconscious already knew that he was in love with YN, and now he'd all but admitted it out loud.  A part of him thought it was too soon – that she was still too fragile from the accident and the loss of her memories to handle it – but now that he'd said it, there was no going back.

"I love you, YN," he said, his eyes desperately trying to convey the sincerity behind his words.  "I know this probably isn't the best time to be confessing my feelings, but it's the truth."  She started to speak, but he stopped her.  "Don't say anything just yet.  I know you're not in the right frame of mind to even consider your feelings for me.  For right now, I'm just glad I've finally gotten that off of my chest."

She considered him for a moment, his love for her so evident in his beautiful blue eyes.  What had she ever done to deserve someone so wonderful?  Realizing there was nothing she could say, she leaned in and placed a tender kiss to his lips.

What started out sweet and innocent soon became hot and steamy.  Steve's hands dug into her hips, pulling her closer to him as he leaned forward slightly to ensure she was pressed as firmly against his body as humanly possible.  Her arms wrapped around his neck and she raised up on her knees to tower over him and change the angle of the kiss.  She liked feeling in control, and Steve was all too willing to let her take the reins.

When FRIDAY initiated Stealth Mode again, neither of them paid any attention to the AI.  Clothes began falling to floor as they took their time slowly undressing one another.  When they were finally skin to skin again, they returned to their original position on the couch and YN reveled in the feel of his hands gliding up her back and coming to rest on her shoulders.  She was completely wrapped up in him, both literally and figuratively as her mind focused on both giving and receiving pleasure.  

When they'd finally slaked their passion yet again, Steve had effortlessly lifted her and began walking back toward his bedroom.  "Time for shower number three today."

She began to laugh.  "I'm surprised there's any hot water left."  

Steve shook his head and began to laugh with her.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into his shoulder.  When he rounded the corner leading back to the suites, she caught a glimpse of the lake through the window and remembered her earlier desire to go swimming.  She'd originally wanted an opportunity to get Steve half naked, but now that she'd seem him in all of his glory, she didn't think she would be able to keep her hands off of him if he were in a semi state of dress.

"Is there a pool here?" she asked as another thought came to her.

He glanced down at her with a questioning look.  "Yes.  There's a lap pool on the ground level.  Why?"

She brought one hand down to his chest and began to run her fingers over the ever-thickening hair that had begun to cover his pecs.  "I was thinking that we could skip the shower and take a swim instead.  I figured you'd balk at the idea of skinny dipping in the lake, but if the pool was indoors, you might be willing."

He did a quick one-eighty and began heading back down the hall.  "You don't have to ask me twice," he told her with a wink as he stopped in front of the elevators.

She pushed the button and tried to contain the giddy smile that had spread across her face.  "I can walk there, you know."

"Absolutely not," he told her as he carried her onto the elevator and maneuvered her so that she could press the button for the ground level.  "I've waited far too long to get you in my arms, I'm not about to give up any opportunity to keep you close to me."

Her heart swelled at his words and she had to bite her tongue to keep herself from saying something she knew she shouldn't.  Ever fiber of her being wanted her to tell him that she loved him, too, but she knew he'd never believe it.  He'd try to convince her that it was too soon for her to know how she felt about him and that it was just the amazing sex she was in love with.  She couldn't be a hundred percent sure that wasn't true, and not having any other experiences to base her feelings on left her doubting her own convictions.  It wouldn't hurt to wait a few more days or even weeks to make sure she truly had feelings for him, especially once they headed back to the city and resumed their lives.  Right now was like living in a fairy tale, and anyone would be swept away in the romance of it all.  So, for now, she kept her feelings to herself and promised herself that she would enjoy every second she had with him.

The pool was larger than she'd thought it would be, but then she remembered that this facility was used for training.  She imagined that they not only used it to swim laps, but also trained for situations that required them to fight in both shallow and deep bodies of water.

"Do you think you can swim?" he asked as he finally lowered her to her feet.

"Only one way to find out," she said with a wink as she took a running jump into the deep end.

She vaguely heard him calling out her name before she felt the water shift beside her.  She stayed below the surface and watched as he swam toward her.  She knew she should probably meet him halfway, but the sensation of being completely submerged was giving her an odd feeling that she couldn't describe.  It was almost as though she'd started to feel more alive in the water.  Steve eventually reached her and began to pull her up.  A laugh of pure joy erupted from her as soon as she broke the surface.

"Are you crazy?"

She brushed the wet hair away from his face.  "I knew you'd save me if I started to drown."

He shook his head as he began to swim to the shallow end of the pool.  He still had one of her hands gripped in his own even though it was apparent that she knew how to swim.  A feeling of panic had flooded his system when he'd seen her careen into the water, and he couldn't help but be reminded of Bucky falling from the train.  He'd felt helpless all those years ago when he couldn't save his best friend, and although he knew it was ridiculous, he'd been terrified that he wouldn't be able to save her if she began to drown.  One look at her grinning face had been enough to keep him quiet about his fears, but now he wondered how he would ever let her back into the world without him by her side every second of the day.

"I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I'm so glad that this pool is heated," she told him once they were in the shallow end of the pool.

He planted his feet on the bottom of the pool and pulled her back into his arms, her legs immediately wrapping around his waist.  "Tony spares no expense when it comes to the Avengers."  

"Well," she began with a teasing glint in her eye.  "I'm not complaining."

He pushed aside his misgivings and tried to focus on the moment.  "So, you said you wanted to take a swim.  Was that your only agenda for getting us down here?"

"Maybe," she said with a wink as she leaned in to kiss him.  "Maybe not."

Steve pulled back from her kiss with a look of pain on his face.  "Ow."

"I'm so sorry," she said, brushing a finger over his lips.  "Did I shock you?"

Steve started to speak, but her words were like a bucket of ice being poured over his head.  Another snippet of the dream came back to him and in his mind's eye he saw Volt's face leaning over him as she asked him the exact same question.  Shaking his head to get her image to go away, he focused his attention back on YN.  "It's okay.  Why don't we just swim for a bit before its time for dinner."

She knew something was off with him, but she couldn't figure out what.  She hated that she kept shocking him, but she didn't know what to do to stop it.  Going along with his suggestion, she began to swim laps in the warm water.

After the physical exertion of the day, she should have been exhausted after a few laps, but the longer she spent in the water, the more invigorated she felt.  It was as though her nerve endings were alive and with every stroke she took, she could feel energy surging through her.  She would have been happy to stay in the pool all evening, but eventually Steve stopped swimming and headed toward the stairs.

"Are you finished?" she asked as she swam to the edge and folded her arms on the lip of the pool, her chin resting on her stacked hands.

He grabbed a towel from the shelf along the wall before turning back to her.  He nodded toward the skylight above them.  "I think a thunderstorm is starting to roll in – it's probably not a good idea to stay in the pool."

She looked up at the darkening sky above her and realized that he was right.  She listened closely and heard the rolling thunder.  The storm would be upon them sooner rather than later.

"I'm going to head upstairs and start dinner if you want to swim a few more laps."  He didn't wait for a response as he wrapped the towel around his waist and headed toward the elevators.

She watched his retreating back and tried to figure out where things had gone wrong.  They'd been having a good time until they'd gotten into the pool.  Was it her foolhardy jump into the deep end, or the inadvertent shock she'd given him yet again?  Realizing that she wouldn't figure out the answer until she talked to him, she pushed away from the edge and began to swim again.

As she finished up another lap, she heard the clap of thunder that sounded like it was right above her head.  Not wanting to take an unnecessary risk, she quickly exited the pool and headed for the shelf of towels.  As she finished wrapping one around her, the first bolt of lightning lit up the sky beyond the wall of windows that faced the lake.  She watched the bright arc of light streak across the sky and her feet began walking across the room almost of their own volition.  

Stopping in front of the door that led outside, she placed her hands on the glass and stood mesmerized by the storm raging on the other side.  An unidentifiable urge welled up within her and before she could stop herself, she opened the door and stepped outside.  The rain was coming down in sheets, but she didn't care.  Somehow this water felt better than the pool had.  With a feeling of elation, she extended her arms and began turning in circles as she tipped her face to the sky.

She felt the bolt of lightning before she saw it.  By the time her eyes had shot open again, it was already headed straight for her.  She covered her head and fell to her knees, waiting for the pain that never came.  When the warm sensation spread through her body, she arched her back as though she were in the throes of passion.  

Opening her eyes again, she looked around her.  The ground should have been scorched from the electricity, but the grass was just as green as it had been a few moments ago.  She looked down at her hands, turning them over and over, but there were no burns.  Rising back to her feet, she looked back up at the sky with a bewildered look.  She knew the lightning had been heading right for her. There was no way she could have avoided it, but somehow she had not only survived the strike but she had no marks on her body to show where the electricity had entered or exited.

Shaken and confused, she began to run back toward the door leading to the pool.  As she reached for the handle, she froze.  The reflection in the glass showed her, sopping wet and wrapped in a bright white towel, but the eyes staring back at her weren't hers.  As she stared at the electric blue eyes bouncing back at her from the glass-paned door, she watched in horror as the rest of her body took on a blue tint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 12 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! I know you’re all focused on that cliffhanger, so we’ll start there! (͡° ͜ʖ ͡ ) What do you think is going to happen now? Do you think she’ll get her memories back, or will she just realize that she’s actually Volt? Will she tell Steve, or do you think he’s already guessed the truth? I look forward to your comments!_


	13. Chapter 13

Sobbing, she fell to her knees, her fingers digging into the concrete of the patio beneath her.  Pain unlike any she'd ever known began to pierce through her skull as memories came flooding back to her.  With a scream, she brought her hands to her temples in a vain effort to dull the agony of what felt like a thousand knives slicing through her brain, but it was no use.  Collapsing to the ground, she drew her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around her shins.  The tears wouldn't stop as her mind began to reconcile the past few days with the repressed memories that had flooded her system.  Unable to fully process the assault to her mind and body, she lay there as the storm continued to rage above her.

She wasn't sure how long she lay there as she relived the past few days from a new perspective.  It was like watching a movie of someone else's life, except that someone looked and sounded exactly like her.  She wanted to hate herself for giving in to Steve, but she couldn't.  He'd taken her in, had enlisted his friends to help her, even after the abhorrent way she'd treated him.  

She glanced back toward the door to the pool and looked at the bright blue eyes staring back at her.  Her heart felt like it was in a vice and she couldn't stop the sobs that started to wrack her body again.  Her emotions were raw as she finally admitted to herself what she'd always feared – she loved him.  She was in love with Steve Rogers, the man she'd sworn to hate, her nemesis.  She'd done her best to deny her feelings for him, but now it was no use.  She'd inadvertently let him into her heart, and now she would either have to figure out a way to make him love her as she truly was, or keep this secret from him forever.  She hated to admit it, but keeping the secret would be easier than her other option.  She wished she could continue living as they had been, but it wouldn't be fair to either of them.

She braced her hands on the concrete, and forced herself to stand up.  Looking down at her hands, she turned them over as though they belonged to someone else.  She'd never hated having powers before now, but there'd never been anyone in her life that she had to worry about disappointing.  Closing her eyes, she willed Volt to go away, and when she looked back at her reflection in the glass, YN was staring back at her.

Opening the door and striding confidently back into the compound, she knew exactly what she needed to do next.  She headed straight for the monitor to the right of the door.  "FRIDAY, replay the footage from the ground level patio on the northwest side of the compound."  She watched the video of her walking out into the storm and saw the lightning strike her, instantly bringing out Volt.  It was strange to see the confusion on her face as she stared at her reflection in the glass, and she swore under her breath.  Why couldn't she have just stayed indoors?  Why'd she have to go outside in the storm?  A life without her memories would have been difficult, but she and Steve would have managed it somehow.  Now she had to figure out a way to tell him the truth about her without him hating her.

"FRIDAY," she said with a deep sigh.  "Please erase the last ten minutes of security footage."

"I'm sorry, Ms. YLN," the AI responded, "but Mr. Stark is the only one who can authorize any changes to the security system."

She'd been expecting that answer, but on the off chance that it might work, she'd had to try.  Letting out a dejected breath, she laid her hand over the monitor and let her mind merge with the system.  FRIDAY put up some resistance, but she'd been prepared for that.  Stark's AI was brilliant, but she was still nothing more than a program and would never be a match for YN.  Within a few seconds, she'd altered the footage so that it appeared as though she'd been swimming for the past ten minutes instead of outside in the storm.  Even Stark wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't real.

With her tracks covered, she headed toward the elevator.  Fooling the AI had been child's play for her, but the real test was going to be fooling Steve.  She knew she'd need to tell him that her memories had returned sooner rather than later, but she wanted to put it off for as long as possible.  Telling him she remembered her past was one thing, telling him that she was Volt was another.  

She knew telling him right away was the best course of action, but she selfishly wanted a few more hours, or days, to be with him as herself before it all blew up in her face.  She knew she loved him, and it may be wrong, but she wanted to pretend for just a little while that he loved her as well.

She stopped in the entryway to the common area and watched him move around the kitchen as he cooked dinner for her.  He'd changed into a pair of sweats and one of those ridiculously tight Under Armour shirts, but his shaggy hair was still damp from his swim.

Feeling her eyes on him, he looked over his shoulder to find her leaning against the doorframe wearing nothing but a towel.  "Enjoy the rest of your swim?"

She forced a smile on her face and walked across the room toward him.  Careful to keep her powers locked away, she framed his face and lightly brushed her lips across his.  She could tell that he'd been braced for another shock, and she felt a pang of guilt for causing him pain these past few days.

Pulling back, she ran a hand through his damp locks and gave him a sorrowful smile.  "The storm forced me out."  It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.  She hated deceiving him, but until she could figure out a way to tell him who she really was, she'd just have to get used to telling these half-truths.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes," he said as he leaned in for one more kiss, thankful that she wasn't shocking him anymore.  "Why don't you go change and by the time you get back, we'll be ready to eat."

She didn't trust herself to speak, so she simply nodded and turned back toward the hall leading back to the suites.  Walking through the compound was both familiar and alien to her.  It was as though she was living in a constant state of déjà vu.  She could clearly remember walking through these corridors, but it still felt like an out of body experience and she wasn't sure if that feeling would ever go away.

Slipping into the room Steve had originally gave her, she looked around it through new eyes.  He'd told her that he'd set it up for Bucky and now she felt like she was sullying it somehow by being in it.  This was a space he'd created for someone he loved, and he'd thought he was sharing it with someone else he cared for, but instead, he'd allowed the enemy in.  

Shaking her head to clear the self-destructive thoughts from her mind, she went in search of something to wear.  With a rueful grin, she realized that the Widow had done a fairly good job of picking out clothes she might actually have chosen for herself.  Pulling on another pair of leggings and a long tunic top, she walked over to the closet door and opened it to reveal the full length mirror attached to the backside.  

She stared at herself for a long time.  Who was she?  Was she Sydney Cartwright, the spoiled little rich girl with too much time on her hands; or was she YN YLN, the woman who'd chosen to spend her life surrounded by books; or was she Volt, the morally ambiguous vigilante that spent her nights paying retribution to men like Henri Bernard without a care as to who she might be hurting in the process?  Maybe it wasn't as simple as one or the other – maybe it was time to admit that she couldn't keep up the charade of living three different lives anymore.  She'd had a taste of what it would be like to simply be YN, but could she really give up Sydney and Volt, even for Steve?

Slamming the closet door shut, she took a deep breath.  She wanted Steve, but he would never accept her as Volt.  He might understand Sydney and her reasons for creating a new identity so she could live a simple life away from the paparazzi.  The longer she thought about it, the more appealing it became to her to lock Volt away forever and just tell him about Sydney.  It really wouldn't be lying if she were doing it to protect him, right?

Steeling her nerves, she pushed the debate to the back of her mind and focused on trying to get through the rest of this night.  She had no intentions of telling him anything until she'd figured out the best way to go about it, so she needed to center her attention on making it through dinner without giving anything away.

When she rounded the corner into the common area, he looked up at her with a smile.  She'd been on the receiving end of that smile often enough when he visited the bookstore, but somehow it was different.  Her heart swelled for a moment before the guilt settled in again.  Keeping a placid smile on her face she walked behind the bar and helped him finish dinner.

In the past few days, they'd developed a comfortable silence around one another, and she had never been more grateful for that than she was right now.  Remembering to weigh her every word was going to be an exhausting endeavor, so the longer she could stay silent around him, the better.

"Tony called while you were getting dressed," Steve told her once they'd sat down at the table.

Cursing silently, she realized that she wouldn't be lucky enough to make it through the rest of the evening without talking to him.  "Oh, what did Stark want?"  She watched his eyes narrow a bit and she realized her mistake.  She'd have to be more careful in the future or he'd figure things out before she was ready to tell him.

"The FBI has arrested Bernard for the attack at the bookshop," Steve told her as he eyed her warily.  Maybe he was reading too much into things, or maybe it was left over uneasiness following the nightmare, but something seemed off about her tonight.  Pushing the doubts to the back of his mind, he continued.  "Neither his cousin nor his brother-in-law would flip on him, but apparently the FBI found where Bernard had been paying them for years to make his problems go away."

"Oh," she said lamely as her mind began to start racing.  She'd been so worried about keeping her identity from Steve, she'd forgotten all about Bernard and his goons.  They'd never once revealed that they knew she was Volt in the bookshop, but why else would they have been there?  She had no idea how Bernard had figured it out in less than twenty-four hours when Stark had been working on it for months.  

"I can't help but wonder if that's what Volt was up to that night," he mused aloud as he toyed with his salad.

"What do you mean?" she asked, forcing her attention back to him.

"Tony said the money trail was easy to find," he explained as he pushed the salad away and began to spear green beans onto the end of his fork.  "Maybe Volt was uncovering his illegal activities so it would be easier for the authorities to discover."

"That's one possibility," she agreed with a shrug.  It was wrong, but she couldn't tell him that.  If Bernard's payoffs to his henchmen were that easy to find, it was because he'd been sloppy with his bookkeeping.  She'd seen it happen to men a lot smarter than him, though – they knew they were getting away with far dirtier deeds, so they weren't as careful and that's what usually got them busted.

He nodded and shrugged.  "Tony said the FBI will want me and Bucky to testify at some point.  If you ever get your memories back, they'll probably want your testimony as well.  Bruce has already told them about the amnesia, so we don't have to go back anytime soon if you don't want to."

"I don't think it would be a bad idea to stay for a little longer," she told him, grateful that he'd been the one to bring it up.

Neither one of them said anymore about Bernard as they continued to eat.  They tried to make small talk – Yn complimented him on dinner and he made an offhand comment about the storm that had started to die down outside the windows.  Both of them knew something was off, but neither one was ready to tell the other one what was really on their mind.

YN offered to clean up the kitchen and shooed Steve into the living room to finish his book.  Her motives were twofold – one, she needed some time to herself doing something as mundane as washing dishes, and two, she wasn't sure what to do about the book she was reading.  She'd read _The Mortal Instruments_ a few times already, so she already knew the twist at the end.  She didn't want to outright lie to Steve and pretend that she was shocked by the cliffhanger, so she used her time alone in the kitchen to come up with a plan.

Once the last dish had been placed in the dishwasher, she knew what she needed to do.  She'd convinced herself that the half-truths she was telling him were for his own good, and that she would be easing him into the idea of her memories returning.  The longer she put off telling him, the easier it was for her to pretend that she could lock Volt away and live a normal life with the man she loved.

When she walked into the living room, she found him sitting on one end of the couch with his legs stretched out in front of him.  She figured he was close to finishing his book, and there was a part of her that really wanted to hear his thoughts on the series.  Telling herself that they would have years to discuss plot lines and cliffhangers, she picked up her book from the edge of the coffee table and started toward the opposite end of the couch.

"Come sit with me," Steve said as he shifted his position on the couch.

She hesitated for a minute before giving in and walking over to him.  Sitting with her back against the arm rest, she draped her legs over his and flipped open her book.  Staring down at the pages before her, she debated her next course of action.

Steve stopped reading for a moment and shifted his attention to her.  He could tell something was wrong, but he was almost scared to ask her what was bothering her.  Since he'd awoken from his nightmare this afternoon, he'd felt edgy and off-balanced, and he knew it had something to do with her and Volt, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, unable to ignore his concerns any longer.

She took a deep breath and hoped that she could pull off her plan.  She looked up at him with confusion in her eyes and then back down at the book again.  "Do Clary and Jace find out they're brother and sister at the end of this book?"

His eyes grew wide as a smile spread across his face.  "You remember that?"

With a forced smile on her face, she nodded her head.  "Yeah.  It's not true, though, it's just Valentine messing with their minds, right?"

He hastily set his book aside and lifted his hands to her neck, his thumbs grazing along her jaw.  She placed her hands over his and leaned in so he could kiss her.  Guilt was sour in her stomach as she yet again tried to convince herself that she hadn't technically lied to him.

Pulling back slightly, he brushed his fingers down the sides of her face.  "Do you remember anything else?"

She pretended to think for a moment.  "I was going to get a copy of _Animal Farm_ for Bucky the day I was attacked by Bernard's men."

She could see the happiness in his eyes and she tried to focus on that.  She hoped by revealing her newfound memories a little at a time, it would give her a chance to ease herself into the new life she was trying to build with him.  Her mind went back to the pain she'd felt when her memories had come back, and she didn't think it would be wise to reenact that scene for him.  He'd probably overreact and have her on the Quinjet back to the Tower within the hour so Bruce could check her out and she wasn't ready to face the rest of the team just yet.  

"This is great, YN."  He leaned in for another kiss, but stopped himself before his lips met hers.  "You don't hate me again, do you?"

She started to laugh, but deep down all she wanted to do was cry.  How could she tell him that she'd never hated him, that she'd only been cold and indifferent towards him because she didn't think he could ever truly love someone like her?  If there was anyone she hated, it was herself.  She hated that she'd denied herself the opportunity to be honest with him from the moment they met, and she hated that she would most likely spend the rest of her life lying to him just so she could selfishly have him in her life.

"No," she told him as she leaned forward and buried her head in the crook of his shoulder.  "I don't hate you at all."

His arms wrapped around her and he leaned over to kiss the top of her head.  He'd been so worried that there was something wrong, but it had only been her memories slowly coming back to her.  Letting out a relieved breath, he pushed aside his worries over the nightmare and focused on the happiness he felt at finally getting her back.

They read for a little while longer and when she reached the end of her book and closed the cover, he placed one hand behind her knees and the other behind her back.  In one effortless motion, he rose from the couch with her in his arms.  He laughed at the surprised look on her face and leaned down to kiss her again.  He'd meant for the kiss to be sweet, but she apparently had other plans.  Not needing it spelled out for him, he started for the bedroom.

Their lovemaking took on a different tone than it had earlier in the day.  He almost felt like she was trying to memorize every inch of him as her hands and lips slowly roamed over his body.  He loved the way it felt to have her hands caress his skin so he wasn't about to complain, but something still seemed off.  Even though she was in his arms, he felt like she had erected a wall between them and nothing he could do could breach it.

As she lay in his arms afterwards, her mind still barely conscious, he pulled her a little closer to him and whispered in her ear.  "I love you, YN."

She was on the edge of sleep, her limbs heavy with exhaustion from all she'd been through that day, so she didn't weigh her words as carefully as she should have.  "I love you, too, my dear Captain."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 13 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it! Well, she finally has her memories back! What do you think of her plan to lock Volt away and only fill him in on her other secret identity? Do you think Steve will figure it out? She’s not doing such a great job of watching what she says around him, but will he finally put the pieces together? I look forward to your comments!_


	14. Chapter 14

_I love you, too, my dear Captain._

Had she really said that, or was his mind playing tricks on him? He stared down at her in disbelief. There was only one woman who called him "dear Captain," and she was the last woman he wanted in his bed, or his life. 

Carefully disentangling their limbs, he sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. It was the nightmare from this afternoon. It had to be. Volt had gotten into his head and now he was seeing her everywhere he turned.

He heard YN shift behind him and looked over his shoulder to make sure she was still asleep. When he saw the way she was laying, his breath caught in his throat. It was almost exactly the way she'd been in his dream. His mind immediately replayed the last part where Volt had taken YN's place in the bed. What had she said to him? _You just need to look a little harder._

He rose from the bed and went over to his desk in the corner by the window. Grabbing his sketchbook and his pencils, he pulled a chair up to the edge of bed and flipped to a blank page. It was dark in the room, but the storm clouds had dissipated and the light from the moon was shining down through the skylight illuminating YN's face as she lay on her stomach facing him. He would have preferred to turn on a light, but he was scared he would wake her up.

Grabbing a pencil, he began drawing the outline of her sleep form. It only took him a few moments, but he was satisfied that he captured the main details. Putting his pencil back in the case, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. He brought forth the nightmare and staring from the beginning, he focused on Volt. He was particularly interested in the shape of her face – the arch of her brows, the way her nose curved at the end, the shape of her lips when she wasn't speaking. He'd never bothered to pay attention to her before, but now he was desperate to memorize every feature. 

Thinking back to the last time he'd fought her, he tried to call forth that memory of her, just to make sure he was remembering her exactly as she had been. When he was certain that he had her imagine burned into his mind, he grabbed the pencil again and started added the features to the face on the paper. He refused to look at the drawing as a whole, but instead concentrated on each detail as he added them. 

Once he was sure he'd included everything important, he switched his charcoal pencil for a the blue colored pencils. He started with the eyes, knowing that if he wanted a true likeness, the eyes had to be perfect. They were the most striking feature about her, and if he were being honest with himself, he'd never paid much attention to the rest of her face because her eyes had captivated him so much.

As he lay aside the last colored pencil, he closed the sketchbook and rose from his chair. Walking across the room quietly, he slipped out of the bedroom and into the hallway. He wanted to see his final work in the the light, and he was pretty sure he knew what he would see, so he wanted to be alone when his world came crashing down.

He flipped on the light in the kitchen and sat at one of the bar stools with his sketchbook laying closed in front of him. He bent his head and ran his fingers though his long, dark blond hair. Did he really want to do this? Did he really want to know the truth?

With a deep sigh, he opened the book and looked at his finished drawing. He captured her eyes perfectly and they were the first thing that caught his attention. He hadn't meant to make then so smug, but that was really the only way she'd ever looked at him. Forcing himself to take a step back, he looked at the picture as a whole. It was Volt, an absolute perfect rendering of her. For a moment he wondered why he'd never though to draw her before, but when he looked again, he immediately knew the answer. Because it wasn't just Volt staring back at him – it was YN.

When you took away the electric blue eyes and the blue-tinged skin and hair, it was obvious that she was the same woman he'd left sleeping in his bed. He knew from experience that all he had to do to go undercover was to make himself look like any other guy. People only saw what they wanted to see, and most people only focused on his uniform. Out of it, he could be anyone. He'd made the same mistake with Volt. He'd been looking for the fiery blue eyes, so he hadn't noticed that YN's were the same shape and size with the same arched brows above them. He'd seen what he'd wanted to see, and that made him a fool.

Burying his face in his hands in humiliation, he remembered the way he'd flirted with her in the bookstore. She'd done her best to thwart his advances because she'd had the benefit of knowing his true identity, but all he'd seen was a beautiful girl who shared his love of books. He could only imagine how hilarious she'd found it that he'd been so smitten with her. No, he thought as he remembered the Volt would tease and flirt with him, he didn't have to imagine it. She'd been making fun of his infatuation with her the entire time, but he hadn't realized it because he was too stupid to see what was staring him in the face.

Slamming the sketchbook closed, he rose from the stool and began pacing the room. How long had she been lying to him? She had to have known that Bernard was after her – he'd obviously figured out her true identity – and she needed somewhere safe to hide. What better place than with him? She'd known just what to do and what to say to get him to swoop in like her knight in shining armor.

He paused by the wall of windows looking out over the lake and leaned against it, his hands pressed against the glass as he hung his head in sorrow. Thinking back over the past few days, his heart ached at the memory of how happy he'd been. He'd finally had the woman he loved in his arms and she had been everything he'd ever dreamed of.

No. That wasn't true. He didn't love her. How could he? How could you love someone you didn't know, someone that had lied to you and manipulated you for weeks? No, he didn't love her, he only loved the idea of her.

Raising his head, he looked at the reflection staring back at him in the glass. All traces of Steve were gone, and all that was left was the Captain. He was a soldier, first and foremost, and he had a mission. Pushing aside his hurt feelings, he turned on his heel and headed back to the bedroom, pausing only to grab the sketchbook from the bar.

When he pushed open the door to his bedroom and saw her laying there in his bed, he paused for a moment. How could someone so innocent looking actually be so cruel? Because she was cruel. It was the only explanation for how she'd been able to laugh and joke with him like she was his friend – to make love with him even though he knew she couldn't stand the sight of him.

Letting his anger take control of him again, he walked across the room toward his duffle. Opening the inside pocket, he found the small device Tony had given him just before they'd left for the compound. He'd questions Tony's decision to have him bring it along with him, but now he was glad Tony had insisted.

Walking back over to YN – to Volt – he slipped the bracelet over her wrist and locked it into place. With the touch of a button, a blue light appeared to indicate that the device was working. He'd been careful not to wake her since he wasn't ready to deal with her yet, so he laid her hand back on the pillow next to her head.

He could feel his emotions trying to get the best of him, but he shook it off and headed to the room he'd given her to use while they were here. She didn't have much, so it didn't take long to gather up everything she'd brought with her and shove it back in the suitcase. He didn't really care about making sure she had the few belongings Nat had bought for her – he just wanted all traces of her purged from the compound. The team would be moving here in a few weeks and he didn't want to accidentally run across a stray reminder of his biggest folly.

He left her suitcase in the hall and went back into his room. The light on the bracelet shined like a beacon, drawing his eyes to her hands. He had a vivid flashback of those hands on his body and he immediately felt sick. Shaking his head, he turned toward the bathroom so he could wash any remainder of her off of his skin.

As he stood under the harsh fluorescent light, he stared at his reflection in the mirror over the sink. He ran a hand over his chin and studied the man looking back at him. She'd made it seem like such a simple request, but now he could see that she'd only been trying to make it easier on herself to look him in the eye while she lied to him. Gathering his supplies, he went to work turning himself back into the man he knew.

After he'd showered and packed, he couldn't bring himself to lay down beside her again. He was so angry, he knew sleep would never come for him anyway, so he took a seat in the chair and waited for her to wake up. He knew he could drag her out of bed in the middle of the night, but he wanted to see her face in the morning when she realized that her charade was over.

When the first rays of sunlight started shining through the windows, he saw her stir. He'd been sitting as still as a statue for the past few hours, but his attention had never wavered. She was a threat, and it was time he started treating her a such.

As she slowly began to wake up, she could sense that something was wrong. Reaching out a hand toward the opposite side of the bed, she realized that Steve wasn't there. Her eyes shot open, and adrenaline immediately began coursing through her veins. He was still in the room with her, but he wasn't the man she'd spent the past few days with. The man sitting in the chair beside the bed was more like the man she'd battled for the past few months – cold and hard and unrelenting.

He threw a handful of clothes at her. "Get dressed, we're leaving in ten minutes."

She watched as he grabbed his duffle and headed for the door. Sitting up, she clutched the sheet to her chest with one hand while she reached out toward him with the other. "Steve." When he turned back to look at her, the iciness in his eyes took her breath away. "Steve, wait, what's going on?"

"You can either get dressed or go like you are. I don't really care one way or the other."

It wasn't until then that she noticed the thick metal bracelet with the blue indicator light on her wrist. "What is this?"

A sneer distorted the handsome features of his face. "A little something Tony came up with after the run-in at Bernard's offices." One corner of his mouth turned up in an evil grin. "You actually have yourself to thank for that little toy. If you hadn't reconfigured that EMP and threw it back at Tony, FRIDAY would've never been able to identity your unique electrical signature."

She'd known from the moment she'd woken up and seen him sitting across from her – his face clean-shaven and his hair back to its normal length – that he'd figured it out. But she'd held out hope that she was wrong until just then. Looking back down at her wrist, she realized what the device on her wrist was for. Tony had created a dampener to neutralize her powers.

The door slammed behind him and she jumped as a tear slid down her cheek. Hanging her head, she finally noticed the sketchbook open on the bed beside her. It was a beautiful drawing of her lying in bed except for the sneering blue eyes looking back at from the page. She'd screwed up, and she had no one to blame but herself. If she'd only told him last night that her memories had come back and who she really was, she might have had a chance to convince him of the truth. 

With a heavy heart, she realized what he must think of her and she couldn't find it within herself to be angry with him. For all he knew, she'd been lying to him this whole time, and she couldn't blame him for hating her right now. It still didn't lessen the pain of knowing that she'd lost out on the best thing that had ever happened to her.

She dragged herself out of bed and picked up the clothes that he'd thrown at her before heading to the bathroom to change. There was hair still left in the sink from where he'd shaved and it broke her heart to know that he'd only done it to spite her. Rinsing out the basin, she stared at the teary, red eyes looking back at her, but she turned away, not wanting see her own heartache in her eyes.

She found him in the common area standing in front of the wall of windows overlooking the lake. "Steve."

"You know," he said as he turned around to face her. "I think I liked it better when you called me Captain Rogers."

"Steve, please," she begged, knowing that if she didn't at least try, she'd never forgive herself. "Just let me explain."

"I think I know everything I need to know," he stated matter of factly. "You're Volt. You're also YN YLN. But just in case I'm missing something, are there any other aliases you want to tell me about."

"Sydney Cartwright," she said, her voice clipped and angry.

He let out a sardonic laugh and shook his head. "The lies never stop, do they? Tell me, how do you keep it all straight? Isn't it exhausting living three different lives?"

"You tell me," she fired back at him. "You've been living two different lives for almost a hundred years now."

She hated that he'd been able to get a rise out of her. She'd wanted to get him to listen to her, to let her explain her side of the story. But he knew how to push her buttons, and he had no qualms about doing so.

"At least I don't ever pretend to be someone I'm not," he said as he grabbed her arm and started dragging her toward the elevator. "I don't play with other people's emotions to further my own agendas. I think that makes me a helluva better person that you."

"You know nothing about me," she said, her eyes blazing with defiance.

He let out a huff and smiled. "That's got to be the first honest thing that's ever come out of your mouth."

Knowing that there was no way to get him to see reason in the mood he was in, she closed her mouth and refused to look at him. His fingers dug into her skin where he held onto her arm, but she wasn't about to complain. She knew he'd never intentionally hurt her, but somehow she felt like she deserved it.

The flight back to the tower was tense and quiet. He'd strapped her into one of the seats furthers from the cockpit so he wouldn't have to look at her. She'd heard him on the radio, and assumed he was updating Stark. With nothing else to do, she began to fiddle with the bracelet on her wrist. She tried to use her powers, but it seemed as though Tony had finally found a way to beat her. Hoping to distract herself from what awaited her back in the city, she started playing with the controls, but no sequence she tried was able to unlock it.

Feeling the jet start to descend, she looked up and out the window of the cockpit. She could see the Tower start to appear and knew that her time was almost up. Steeling her nerves, she vowed that she wouldn't let them see her break. After all, she had a reputation to uphold. No one but her needed to know how devastated she was that the man she'd fallen in love with hated her.

Once he'd landed the plane, he unbuckled her straps and hauled her up out of the seat. He almost seemed to be trying to goad her into starting a fight with him, but she refused. She would handle this situation with as much aplomb as she could muster.

Stark was waiting for them just inside the doors, his arms crossed over his chest and snarky look on his face. "How the mighty fall."

"She's all yours," Steve said as he dropped her arm and started stalking off.

"What do you want me to do with her?" Stark asked Steve's retreating back.

"I don't give a damn what you do with her."

Tony turned back to her and shook his head. "Well, kid, it looks like you've earned yourself a one-way ticket to the Raft."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 14 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it! So, what did you think of Steve's reaction to figuring it out?  Do you think he was justified in his anger?  We all know he has a pretty strict moral compass and as far as he knows, she's been playing him all this time.  Do you think Steve really hates her now? Do you think Tony will really send her to the Raft?  I look forward to your comments!_


	15. Chapter 15

Tony watched her carefully, waiting for some snippy retort, but instead he got nothing.  Not even a blink of her eyes to indicate that she'd even heard him.  He followed the direction of her gaze and saw that she was watching Steve walk through the lab to the bank of elevators on the other side.  He turned back to her and narrowed his eyes.  Was she playing him right now, or was she really upset at the way Steve had dropped her off like a bag of trash at his feet?

Tony snapped his fingers in her face to draw her attention to him.  "I'm going to ask you a question.  Can you be honest with me?"

She let out a sigh and shook her head.  "Have I ever really lied to you, Stark?"

He thought about her question for a moment before he realized that she was right.  They'd battled it out on many occasions, but she'd never once tried to lie to him about what she was doing.  She'd never come right out and told him was her plan was, but then again, he'd never really asked her directly.

"I'll give you that," he conceded.  "But tell me, was the amnesia real?"

"He wants to believe it wasn't," she said, nodding in the direction Steve had taken.  "But, yes, it was real."

She was starting to throw him off balance and he didn't like it.  He was used to her smart mouth and witty comebacks to his snark, but he wasn't getting any of that from her today.  From what he could tell, she was suffering from a severe case of heartache.  He'd seen the way Steve had looked at her – had treated her – before they'd left, so he could only imagine what the last few days had been like before he'd figured out the truth.

"C'mon," he said as he turned and started walking toward the lab.

Thinking that her time was up, she obediently followed behind him.  When he went to a workstation instead of the elevators, she was confused.  She was even more floored when he reached over and tapped out a sequence on her bracelet before removing it and placing it on the workbench beside him.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she rubbed her wrist where the bracelet had been.

"I don't think you're going to zap me, are you?"

She let out a little laugh and shook her head.  "Not today.  I'm not really feeling it."

"I can see that," he said as he turned his back to her and began to tinker with a part of suit that was laying before him.  He looked over his shoulder and saw her standing there watching him.  "Grab a seat, this might take a while."

She eyed him warily before looking around for somewhere to sit.  She wasn't sure what he was up to, but she didn't trust him.  Deciding to see what would happen if she tested him, she reached behind her and swept aside a pile of tools and parts before jumping up on the workstation perpendicular to him and crossing her legs underneath her.

"By all means, make yourself at home," he said with a roll of his eyes.  He'd never tell her, but he was glad to see that her spirit wasn't completely broken at this point.

"Is it true?" Nat asked as she bounded into the lab.  When she spotted YN sitting on the workbench beside Tony, she drew up short, automatically going into a defensive posture.

"Stand down, agent," Tony huffed.  "We're just having a chat."

Peter came running into the room, out of breath from having chased Nat through the Tower.  "I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark," he said with a look of guilt in his eye.  "I tried to tell her. . ."

"Tried to tell her what, kid?" Tony asked interrupting her.  "Cause I asked you _not_ to tell her that Steve was bringing Sparky back to the Tower.  I'm guessing that you not only told Nat, but that also you spilled the beans about her secret identity."

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark," Peter apologized again.  "But you know tricky she is."

"Don't blame the kid, Tony," Nat said with a wave of her hand.  "You knew I already had my suspicions.  The real question is, why is she just sitting here," she paused to stare at YN's bare wrist before continuing, "and why isn't she wearing the device?"

"Sparky's not a threat," Tony said with a smirk before turning to YN.  "Are you Sparky?"

YN allowed her eyes to turn blue before she answered.  "Call me Sparky one more time and that might change."

A wry grin spread across Tony's face.  "There's my girl."  He looked over Nat's shoulder at Peter.  "Kid, is your spidey-sense tingling?"

Peter looked at him worriedly.  "N. . .No, Mr. Stark.  Should it be?"

"See, Nat.  The kid doesn't sense that she's a threat, so she's not a threat," Tony explained as he turned back to his workstation.

Nat gave YN a cold, calculating look, never taking her eyes off of her as she addressed Tony again.  "So, what?  You're going to keep the kid around all the time, just in case."

Tony thought for a second before nodding his head.  "He'll be my canary."

"I'm sorry, what?" YN asked, earning her a sharp look from the Widow.  She held her hands up to show that she wasn't trying to be a threat.

"You know," Tony began.  "The coal miners used to take canaries down into the mines with them while they worked.  If the canary died, they knew the carbon monoxide levels were getting high and they needed to get out before they died as well."

"Oh, that's just great, Tony," Nat said, rolling her eyes.  "You'd sacrifice the kid. . ."

"Now wait just a second," Tony interrupted, looking at YN apologetically.  "She's not going to kill anyone, are you?"  He waited until YN shook her head.  "See.  The kid will just hang around and if she starts feeling frisky, he'll give me a heads up and I'll take her out."

"By take me out, I'm assuming you don't mean dinner and movie?" YN asked, unable to keep the snarky comment to herself.

"Ha ha ha," Tony mocked.  "No, sweetheart.  I hate to tell you. . .no, wait, I'm actually going to love telling you this.  That bracelet isn't the only new toy I have for you."

"I didn't figure it was," she said with a smile and a shrug.  "I guess it was only a matter of time."

Nat looked at Tony and shook her head.  Turning back to Peter, she asked, "Are you okay staying here with them?"

"Sure thing, Agent. . .um. . .Ms. . .uh. . .Widow?"

Nat gave Peter a smile and a pat on the cheek that had his entire face turning bright red.  "If she starts getting out of hand, go for her hands."  Nat threw a look over her shoulder at YN.  "That's where she's the most lethal."

Tony waved goodbye to Nat as she headed back for the elevators.  She didn't trust Volt one bit, even if she did look completely innocent sitting there in Tony's lab.  Nat had seen the damage inflicted on both Tony and Steve after a run-in with her, and she wasn't about to believe a blow to the head and a vacation in the country had changed her personality that much.  Tony had always been a sucker for a pretty face, but then again, so had Steve.  Her thoughts shifted to him, and she knew where she needed to go next.  If she knew him as well as she thought she did, she figured he'd be hurting pretty badly right now, but he wouldn't want to show it.

Knocking lightly on his door, she didn't wait for an answer, but went ahead and let herself in.  

He'd been lying down, but had sat up when he'd heard the knock on the door.  "Most people wait for an invitation before barging into someone's room."

"Forgive me," she said with a smirk.  "I was raised by homicidal sociopaths."

Swinging his legs over to sit on the side of the bed, he waited for her to join him.  "I guess you've heard."

"How are you handling it?" she asked, jumping straight to the point.

"I don't know," he admitted as he dragged his hands over his face.  "She played me, Nat.  She's good, I'll give her that."

"Are you sure she played you?" Nat asked.  "Did she admit that she'd been faking the amnesia the whole time?"

Steve narrowed his eyes at her.  "Does it matter?  She's been playing me for months."

"I don't know, Steve," Nat said, carefully choosing her words.  "She wasn't exactly falling all over you at the bookstore."

"Who's side are you on, Romanoff?"

"I'm on your side," she said, laying a hand over his.  "I've always been on your side."  She paused and cocked her head to the side with a little smile.  "Except for that one time, but that was a rough patch for all of us." Her expression turned serious again.  "I'm just trying to play devil's advocate."

"You always do that, you know?"  He shook his head.  "Doesn't it get old?"

"When you've lived the life I have, you learn to question everything," she explained.  "Because the moment you stop – that's when you lose the ability to find the truth." She let out a huff.  "I've been lied to before, you know that better than anyone."

"But have you been lied to by someone you thought you loved?" Steve asked, giving her a hard look.

She didn't answer him, but instead rose from the bed and walked toward the door.  She paused and looked back at him.  "Tony has her in the lab. . ."

"Is he out of his mind?" Steve asked as he shook his head in frustration.

"I didn't tell you to upset you," she said.  "I just wanted you to know that she was still here if you changed your mind."

"I'm not going to change my mind."

"Take some time to think this through, Steve," she warned.  "Once Ross gets ahold of her, she'll be gone forever."

Nat closed the door behind her and he fell back on the bed.  He looked over at the chair she'd curled up in a few days ago while he'd packed a bag for their trip to the compound.  She'd seemed so scared, but also fiercely determined not to let it show.  Had it all been an act, or was he just overreacting to the finding out the truth the way he had?  He shook his head and rolled over.  He was exhausted and he needed some sleep.  If Tony had her in the lab with him, she'd be here for days while Tony poked and prodded at her – he had time to figure things out.

Nat stood on the other side of the closed door for a moment while she thought.  She'd spent her life around people who told lies for a living, and she liked to think that she had a good bullshit meter.  When she'd met YN a few days ago, she hadn't gotten the feeling the other woman had been lying to them.  Making up her mind, she walked down the hall and, without bothering to knock on the door, let herself in to Bucky's room.

"What do you want?" Bucky asked from his seat at his desk.  He hadn't bothered to turn around – only one person had the audacity to waltz into his room without knocking.

"Steve's back," she told him as she leaned against the jam and waited for him to turn around to face her.

"Why?" he asked, swiveling around with a questioning look on his face.  "Did something happen."

"Stark's trying to keep a lid on it," she said as she shut the door behind her and sat cross legged on the end of his bed.  "Turns out YN is actually Volt."

"You're joking."

Nat shook her head.  "Steve's taking it pretty hard.  He'd really started falling for her, and now this."

"Do I need to. . .?" he didn't finish his sentence, choosing instead to nod toward Steve's room down the hall.

"I just talked to him and he's actually handling this better than I thought he would," she admitted with somewhat shocked expression on her face.  "Right now I think he's exhausted and he just needs rest and some time to think."

"Is Stark turning her in to Ross?"

"That would be my first move, but I'm not calling the shots on this."  She paused and let out a breath.  "I don't think the amnesia was fake."

"Wait," Bucky said, holding up a hand.  "Does she know she's Volt?"

Nat smiled as she remembered YN threatening Tony in the lab.  "Oh, yeah.  Stark called her Sparky and her eyes started glowing."

"Hold up," Bucky said, confused again.  "I thought Stark had created those dampeners.  Why isn't she wearing one?"

"Tony doesn't think she's a threat," Nat explained, shaking her head.  "He's got the kid in there with him.  He said Peter would be his canary in the mines, or something."

Bucky thought for a moment and nodded.  "That's a good idea.  The kid has that sixth sense, he'll know if she's about to turn on them." He paused and gave Nat a thoughtful look.  "But you don't think she will, do you?"

"She seemed broken." Nat took a deep breath and shifted on the bed.  "I don't think she was faking the day Steve brought her here, but she did get her memories back at some point while they were at the compound."

"What are you thinking?" he asked, knowing the former assassin had a plan that required his help.

"We need to go back and watch the video surveillance from the past few days."  She grimaced before continuing.  "It's not going to be fun, and I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of Steve than either of us ever want to see, but if we can pinpoint when she got her memories back, maybe we can convince Steve not to send her to the Raft."

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because Steve loves her.  He may not think he does right now, but we both know him well enough to know that if he lets Ross put her on the Raft, he'll never forgive himself."

Bucky rose and headed for the door.  "Let's get started, then."

 

The silence in the lab had grown awkward since the Widow had left.  YN continued to sit on the workbench and watch Tony tinker, but the kid seemed to be completely lost without something to do.  He'd started out sitting on a stool, twirling a screwdriver between his fingers as he spun around in a slow circle. Now he was up and pacing around the room, stopping periodically to touch random things laying on the other workstations.

"So," YN said, finally tired of sitting quietly.  "You're the spider kid."

"Spider-Man," Peter automatically corrected as he walked over to where she sat.  "You can call me Peter, though."  He stuck out his hand, but then pulled it back at the last second.  "You're not going to shock me, are you?"

She shook her head.  "No, I won't shock you."  She extended her hand and smiled when he'd taken it.  "I'm YN."

Tony chose that moment to turn around and point a screwdriver at her.  "That's not really true, is it?"  He reached behind him and swiveled a monitor toward her.  With a few taps of his fingers, she saw the results of the facial recognition scans pop up on the screen.  Beside the image of Volt was a picture of her, as well as another one of her in her Sydney Cartwright disguise.

"How long have you known?" she asked.

He slapped the screwdriver against his palm and gave her a slight nod.  "Nat sent me this right before Steve showed up with you.  It's not a hundred percent match, but it was one hell of a coincidence."

She gave him a long, assessing look.  "Would you have told him?" 

"Doesn't matter now," he said as he went back to tinkering with his suit.

"Yes it does," she snapped before she could stop herself.  Taking a deep breath, she changed her tone of voice and tried again.  "It matters to me, Stark."

"I don't know, Sparky. . ."

An arc of blue electricity bounced from one finger to the other as a look of pure rage distorted her features.  "I swear I _will_ kill you."

He gave her a wink as he put down the screwdriver and leaned back against his worktable with his arms crossed in front of his chest.  "No you won't.  You don't have it in you, kid."  He raised one hand to stroke his goatee before he continued.  "What were you doing?"

A devious smile played at the corners of her lips as she splayed her arms wide. "All of this, and you couldn't figure it out."

"Humor me, kid," Tony said.  "What do you have to lose?"

She raised her eyebrows and let out a huff.  "You've got me there."  She took a moment to think before she spoke again.  "Okay.  I'll tell you everything you want to know, but only on one condition."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 15 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it! Don’t you just love Peter? I try to find a way to add him into a story whenever I can because he’s just so darn cute! Nat seems pretty convinced that Steve still loves her. Do you think she’s right? Will she and Bucky figure out when the Reader got her memories back? Do you think Steve will really let her to go the Raft for the rest of her life? What do you think her condition will be for telling Tony what she was up to?  I look forward to your comments!_


	16. Chapter 16

YN waited to see how Tony would react to her ultimatum.  She knew it was driving him crazy not knowing what she'd been up to, and she was willing to bet that he'd give in to her demands just to appease his rabid curiosity.

"Fine," he said as he rose and started pacing the room.  "Name your terms."

She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to decide if he was being straight with her.  "Okay.  I'll tell you everything you want to know. . ."  She paused when she saw one of his eyebrows raise in anticipation of her next words.  ". . .but we'll have to go back to my apartment for me to actually show you."

"That's it?" Tony asked, shaking his head in frustration.  "You just want to go home for a visit?  Hate to tell you this, but that place was completely trashed.  Nat and the kid were nice enough to go clean it up for you, but if there was anything there of value, it's gone now."

A slow smile played across her lips.  "First of all, going back to my apartment isn't my one condition.  And secondly, if you don't know why I want to go back, I can personally guarantee that nothing of value was stolen from me."

"Okay," he said, as he picked up the dampening bracelet and held it out to her.  "But if we're going on a field trip, you're wearing this."

She held out her arm dutifully and waited until he'd clicked the two ends together and set the code before she spoke again.  "Whatever you need to do to make yourself feel safe."

He recognized that she was goading him and he loved it.  The longer she was in the lab with him, the more she started to act like the woman he'd come to secretly admire over the past few months.

"Okay, kid," Tony said to Peter.  "You're on duty starting now.  If you so much as feel a sneeze coming on, you let me know immediately and I'll neutralize her."

Peter looked nervously from YN to Tony.  "Okay. . .okay Mr. Stark. . .I've got this."

Tony gave the kid an encouraging smile before turning back to YN.  "Okay, what's the condition."

YN eyed him carefully.  She knew he was going to balk at first, but she was sure that once she showed him what she'd really been up to, he'd be more than willing to meet her demands.  "Once I fill you in, you have to promise me that you'll finish my work."

Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise.  He glanced over at Peter and found him with an almost identical look on his face.  Out of all the things he thought she might say, that was the last possibility he'd imagined.  "You won't show me unless I agree, right?"

"That's correct."  She waited, her heart pounding in her chest.

"What do you think, kid?" Tony asked Peter.

"I don't know, Mr. Stark," Peter said, hating that he'd been put on the spot.  "I don't think we should be doing anything illegal."

"The kid's got a point."  Tony looked at YN, waiting to see how she would react.

"Look,  if you don't want to know, that's fine."  She tried to act as nonchalantly as she could.  "Phase III is going to happen whether or not you help me finish my work.  I'd like to see it through to the end, but if I can't, I'll just have to be happy with what I was able to accomplish."

"Dammit," Tony swore under his breath.  He knew she was smart, but was she being straight with him now?  From what she'd alluded to, he would have all the answers he wanted soon, but if it was a threat that needed eliminating, he might be too late if he didn't go along with her.  "Fine.  Let's go."

"You're going to do it?" she asked as she followed him to the bank of elevators.  "You'll give me your word that you'll finish my work?"

He punched the button to call the elevator car and turned to glare at her.  "I don't like ultimatums, but you've got me between a rock and a hard place, darlin'."

A smile spread across her face and she tried to contain her excitement.  She would have preferred to be the one to finish things herself, but she knew that once this day was over, so was the life she'd worked so hard to create.  She wasn't too broken up about it.  She'd had a feeling she would always end up on the Raft before this was all over, but she never thought it would play out the way that it had.  

As they rode down to the garage, she looked at the numbers on the control panel.  She knew which one of those buttons would take her to Steve's floor and she suddenly felt the desire to override the system and go to him.  He might not be willing to listen to her, but there was a part of her that needed to see him one last time.  Even if he looked at her with hate-filled eyes, her heart ached to be close to him again, if only for a moment.  Clenching her hands into fists at her sides, she let out a dejected breath.

Tony hadn't needed directions to her apartment, but she hadn't been surprised at that.  She was sure that he'd done an extensive background check on both of her identities, but she knew he'd only been able to discover what she wanted people to find.  It was probably killing him to know that there was no way to connect YN YLN to Sydney Cartwright.  She'd tell him everything tonight, and then maybe he'd finally understand why she'd had to do what she'd done.

As Tony trudged up the stairs to her fifth floor apartment, he turned to glare at her.  "I know you own this place.  You couldn't have sprung to fix the elevator?"

"I've got to keep up appearances," she said with a smirk.  "And it's not like I was living on the ground floor and making all the tenants walk up to the fifth."

"It's not that bad," Peter offered, trying to ease the tension between the two of them.  

When YN came to the door of her apartment, she was surprised to see a new lock gleaming from the distressed wooden slab that had once served as her only barrier to the outside world.  "Do you have a key?"

Tony rolled his eyes and placed his thumb on the biometric scanner beside the door frame.  "I installed this before I knew who you were."

"Uh-huh," she mumbled, trying to hide her smile.  She'd grown on him in the few hours she's spent at the tower after her attack and for some reason, that thought made her extremely happy.

Tony opened the door and stepped inside, sweeping his arms wide to encompass the whole room.  "So, here we are.  I'm anxiously awaiting the great revelation."

She narrowed her eyes at him and silently wished that she wasn't wearing the dampener. She'd love to give him a little shock right about now.  Suppressing her murderous longings, she took a moment to look around at what was left of her apartment.  Most of the furniture had been ripped apart or smashed, and the knick knacks that had been scattered throughout the small space were all broken.

Glancing back at Peter she gave him a questioning look.  "The bookcase.  Did they mess it up too much?"

Peter thought back to when he and Agent Romanoff had come by to pick up the mess Bernard's men had made.  "Uh, yeah, it was pretty messed up.  It looked like they had swept their hand across the shelves and knocked most everything off."

"Most?" she asked, picking up on his subtle hint.  "Not everything though?"

"No, ma'am."

"YN," she corrected.  "Call me YN."

Peter looked at Tony, and when the billionaire nodded with a roll of his eyes, Peter smiled back at YN.  "Okay, YN.  No, there were a few books that hadn't been touched, but I can't remember which ones."

"Why does this matter?" Tony asked, suddenly getting frustrated.

A slow smile lifted the corners of her lips as she sauntered over to the book case.  Reaching out blindly, she placed her fingers on the worn copy of The Count of Monte Cristo.  She could see in Tony's eyes the second he figured out what she was going to do.

"Please be a secret door, please be a secret door, please be a secret door," he began muttering under his breath.  When she pulled down on the spine of the book and the bookcase slid inward, his childlike wonder got the better of him.  "Yay."

"Gentlemen," YN said as she swept her arm in front of her to invite them to go through the door.  "Welcome to my humble abode."

Peter's eyes were huge as he struggled to take in the splendor of the apartment on the other side of the secret door.  Tony was a little more subtle, but he had to admit that he was just as impressed at the kid.

"Let me guess," he said, pointing over his shoulder.  "That was YN's apartment, but this is all Sydney."

"This is all Volt," YN said with a smug look.  "Sydney is nothing more than a means to an end.  Think of her like my sugar momma."

Tony's eyes narrowed and he struggled with the desire to ask more about that remark, but he didn't want to get sidetracked from the real reason they were there.  "Okay, we're here.  Now spill."

She led them to a bank of servers in the corner and sat down behind her computer monitor.  The flash drive she'd used the night she'd broken into Bernard's building was still laying on the desk where she'd left it.  Looking down at it, she couldn't help but think that it seemed like years instead of just a few days since she'd pulled that job.  Turning the small device over and over in her hands, she let out a deep breath.

"You might want to sit down for this, it could take a while."  She motioned for them to grab a few chairs from the dining room set a few feet away.

Once they were seated, she nodded her head and began.  "As you're probably aware by now, Henri Bernard isn't the upstanding businessman everyone thinks he is."  She waited to see if Tony or Peter would say anything, but they seemed to be content to just listen.  "He's a crook and a scam artist.  His entire company is nothing more than an elaborate and well thought out Ponzi scheme."

Tony held up a finger to stop her.  "Okay, let's say you're right – which I think you are.  Why not just expose him?"

"Exposing him will bring him down, but it'll destroy countless lives in the process," she said hanging her head.  "Trust me, I know."

Tony wanted to push her on her last statement, but he was too curious to find out what her plan had been.  

She held up the flash drive.  "This is an algorithm that I created to make sure that the people that invested with him didn't lose their entire live savings."

"How does it work?" Peter asked, completely fascinated.

"Basically, it calculates how much money each individual investor should have been making based on the rise and fall of the stock market for the entire time they were a client of Bernard's.  I might have hacked into his personal offshore bank accounts to make sure that when the program went into effect, it would completely drain him dry while simultaneously depositing the full amount his clients should have earned into their personal bank accounts."  She paused to make sure they were following her.  "If you bring down someone like this, all their accounts are frozen and the people who fell for the scheme never see a dime of their money.  Then once the crooks con their way out of jail, all they have to do is move out of the country and live off the stolen money they'd hidden in the offshore accounts that our government can't touch."

Tony nodded his head.  "Okay, I totally get that, and I applaud you for your efforts, but it still doesn't explain everything."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

Tony let out a huff.  "Nat brought up that possibility when you first came on the scene, but you didn't just hit investment firms.  There was that law firm – what was their name?"

"Hamilton, Burgess, Young, and Pollard," she rattled off without missing a beat.  "They've been scamming their clients for years – charging them outrageous fees for nothing.  Some of their less-successful clients have ended up losing everything because of fraudulent billing hours." She held up the flash drive again.  "This algorithm does the same thing for those people as it did for Bernard's clients."

Tony sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.  "Where else have you hit?  I know we didn't catch you at every single place the last few months."

She gave him a giddy smile.  She couldn't believe it, but she was actually enjoying telling him about her pet project.  For a moment, she wondered if maybe she shouldn't have enlisted his help from the beginning.  Maybe then, she and Steve wouldn't have been on opposite sides and things would've worked out completely different for them.  Shaking her head, she forced those thoughts from her mind.  There was no use dwelling on the past – what was done was done and there was nothing to do to change it.

"Mount Sinai Hospital," she said with a shrug.  "You guys never even knew I was there."

"Why did you target a hospital?" Peter asked with a confused look on his face.

"They like to add fraudulent treatments onto patients' bills that don't have insurance," she explained.  "One woman came in to deliver a baby and was charged over a thousand dollars for a circumcision."

"What's wrong with that?" Peter asked.

"She delivered a seven pound fifteen ounce baby _girl_."  It took a few moments for Tony and Peter to grasp what she was saying, but once they did, they both began to nod their heads.

"I think I'm finally starting to understand," Tony said with a nod of his head.  "You mentioned 'Phase III.'  What did Phase I and II entail?"

"Phase I was the research and reconnoissance part of this plan.  Phase II was breaking into to each company on my list to upload my algorithm.  Phase III is when it all comes crashing down."  She glanced at the date on the bottom of her computer monitor.  "Phase III goes into effect in five days, and I still have two investment firms on my list.  The algorithm will do what it's supposed to do without those two firms, but I'd like to see them all go down at one time."

"And what exactly am I supposed to do?" Tony asked, one eyebrow cocked in question.  

"I need you to upload the algorithm to their servers," she said with a shrug.

"You want Mr. Stark to break into these businesses?" Peter asked with a wide-eyed look.

"Stark doesn't need to break in," she said with a smile.  "He can always make an appointment and walk in through the front door.  I'm sure if you asked nicely, they'd be more than happy to let you see how secure their server banks are.  It wouldn't take you any time to upload the program and walk out without anyone knowing a thing."

"That's true," Tony said, but he still wasn't convinced.  "I get _what_ you're doing, but I'm still hung up on the _why_.  You have a pretty nice setup here.  Why risk it all to help out people you've never met?"

YN had hoped he wouldn't ask this question, but she knew he was a shrewd man who would want to know the answer to every question before he took on an endeavor such as this.  "What do you know about the Cartwright's?"

"Just what I read about them," he told her with a shrug.  "He was an investment banker and she was a stay at home mom.  He made a pretty nice living for himself before his wife passed away from cancer and he died in a plane crash."  He paused and gave her a pointed look.  "Now it's your turn.  Tell me the real story."

"The Cartwright's aren't my biological parents," she admitted, drawing a shocked look from both Peter and Stark.  "Sydney Cartwright never existed.  I go by YN YLN because that's the name my real parents gave me.  The parents that Damian Cartwright ruined so he could take away their only child and give me to his wife since she was unable to conceive."  She took a deep breath and let it out quickly, wanting to get this part of the story over with quickly.  "My real father was a client of Damian's and one day, he came in with his wife and daughter.  Damian's wife, Lillith, had been by to bring him lunch and saw me sitting on my mother's lap.  She confessed the whole sordid story to me right before she died.  She told me that she'd begged Damian to find a way to make my parents give me up.  Damian decided to cook the books, so to speak, to ruin my father so he'd have no choice but to give me up rather than watch me starve to death.  Both of my parents ended up committing suicide because of what he'd done.  I don't want that to happen to any of the people that have been swindled by these crooks.  Someone needs to take them down, and it might as well be me."

"How do you know she was telling you the truth?" Tony asked.

"She was on death's door and guilt was eating her alive," YN said with a sneer.  "Plus, I'd just recently discovered my abilities and decided to go snooping through Damian's computer.  He was either too stupid, or too cocky, but he'd kept files outlining everything he'd done to my parents when I was a child."

"Tell me something," Tony demanded.  "Were you responsible for Damian's death?"

She let out a deep breath and shook her head.  "I wish I had been, but I can't take credit for that plane malfunctioning.  I like to think Karma finally came back to bite him in the ass."

"I think what you're doing is amazing," Peter said.  "Can I take a look at that algorithm?"

"Sure," she said as she slipped the flash drive into a USB port and stood up so Peter could take a seat behind the monitor.

Tony rose and moved to stand beside YN.  "You should have come to us, YN.  If you had told us what you were doing, we could have found a way to do this legally."

"I couldn't take that chance, Tony," she said using his given name again since he'd used hers for the first time.  "I had no idea if you would go along with my plan."  She looked deep into his eyes.  "I never got to know my parents because of people like Damian Cartwright.  I'll be damned if I let that happen to anyone else."

"Okay," he said, nodding his head.  "First thing tomorrow, we'll hit up those last two firms on your list and get the algorithm uploaded."

She shook her head.  "No, Tony, you're on your own for this one.  Take the kid if you want, but I won't be able to help you."

"Why not?"

“Because Secretary Ross will be here in less than five minutes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 16 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it!  Well, now it’s all out in the open! We finally the know the Reader’s entire backstory as well as what she’s been up to the past few months. Do you think if she’d gone to the Avengers that they would have helped her carry out her plan, or would they have insisted she contact the authorities? I guess we’ll never really know, but it’s sad to think that she and Steve could’ve been living happily ever after if only a few different choices had been made. What do you think of her wanting to turn herself in? It doesn’t seem like Tony really wants her on the Raft, but she’d determined to go. How do you think Steve’s going to react once he learns the truth? I look forward to your comments!_


	17. Chapter 17

"What the hell did you do?" Tony asked with a look of pure fury on his face.

"I had a feeling once you found out what I was doing, you'd try to talk me out of turning myself in," she answered with a shrug as she leaned over Peter to pull out the flash drive.  She grabbed Peter's hand and placed the drive in his palm.  "There's an elevator in the far corner – it'll take you down to the garage level.  You can get yourself back to the Tower can't you?"

Peter looked from YN to the flash drive, and then to Tony.  "Uh. . ."

"Go," Tony demanded with a furious shake of his head.  "Ross can't find you here or my ass will be in a sling."

Peter nodded and headed toward the elevator YN had pointed out.  With one final look of apology to YN, he slipped into the car.

"Motion sensor on the secret door?" Tony asked.

She shook her head.  "No.  I installed a program on my system that would send a call Ross."  She reached out an laid a hand on his arm.  "I've known since the start that I'd end up on the Raft, Tony.  Don't beat yourself up about it."

"But you're not a criminal."

"Yes I am."

"Yeah?  'Cause that's not how I see it."

She let out a dejected huff.  "I hacked into private, offshore bank accounts, Tony.  There's not a government in the world that would be willing to overlook that fact, no matter how much good I was doing in the world."

"You've never been to the Raft, sweetheart.  I have, and it's not a very nice place, especially for people like you."

"Enhanced people, you mean."

"Enhanced.  Inhumans.  Mutants.  It doesn't matter what label you put on someone, they all see you as a threat."

"I am a threat, Tony," she reasoned with a smile.  "Just look at what I can do.  Yes, I've chosen to do something good with my gift, but there are some that won't see it that way."

Tony took a deep breath.  "You chose The Count of Monte Cristo as the key to enter this place."

"Yes, I did."

"Have you read the book?"

"I own a bookstore.  I think it's safe to assume I've read a few books in my lifetime."

He narrowed his gaze at her.  "Edmond Dantès gets away with it all at the end."

"And life isn't like a book.  I've committed crimes, and I need to pay for them."

"Why?"

"Because Steve will never forgive me unless I do this."

Tony's shoulders dropped as he closed his eyes and shook his head.  "He'll never forgive himself once he learns the truth."

"But maybe he'll finally understand why I had to keep him at arm's length all these months."  She sighed and walked over to the window.  Looking down at the street she saw the flashing blue and red lights of the police cruisers.  Ordinarily, they would be no match for her, but between her willingness to go with them and Tony's dampener, it would be a painless process. . .she hoped.

Before Tony could say another word, Ross and a few dozen armed men came bursting through the secret door from her trashed apartment.  She walked to the middle of the room and dropped to her knees with her hands behind her head.  The man who cuffed her didn't bother trying to be gentle as he wrenched her arms down and behind her back.

"Ross, you need to let me explain," Tony said as he approached the Secretary of State.

"No need, Stark," Ross said as he clapped Tony on the back.  "You finally brought her down.  I hate to say it, but I'm proud of you."

"You don't understand. . ." Tony stopped speaking and swore under his breath as he rushed after the man who was all but dragging YN away.  "She's not dangerous, there's no need to treat her like an animal."

Ross came up behind Tony and laid a hand on his shoulder.  "She's on the Top Ten Most Wanted List – I think a little show of force is necessary."

"She's wearing the dampener."

"A lovely invention, by the way, but she's still a criminal."

"No, she's not. . ."

"You promised," YN said as she struggled to look over her shoulder.

Tony pressed his lips together and pinched the bridge of his nose.  A war raged within himself as he tried to figure out a way to keep his promise to her and still explain the situation to Ross.  Before he could figure something out, YN was gone.

"She gets a trial," Tony demanded.

"She gets a cell on the Raft."

Tony tapped his watch.  "You don't think for one second that this entire incident hasn't been recorded?  You just barged into a woman's home with no warrant, slapped cuffs on her without reading her the Miranda rights, and hauled her off to a secret prison without due process.  I can have a press conference ready in less than thirty minutes, but I'm thinking you don't want that kind of attention right now."

"Dammit, Stark," Ross swore as he began to pace around the room.  "Why do you care so much about what happens to this girl?"

"Oh, I don't know.  Maybe because you have a bad habit of throwing innocent people onto that floating ocean pokey you've got out in the Atlantic."

"They know the law.  If they don't want to abide by the Accords, then they give up all of their rights."

"The UN can't usurp United States law, and you know that Ross. I want her in front of judge today to be arraigned."

"She's not getting bail."

"That's fine.  A few days in jail will give her time to think about what she's done."

"She got to you, didn't she?" Ross asked with a sneer.  "She's a pretty one, but you've always had a weakness for the pretty ones, haven't you?"

"She's just a kid."

"She's a grown woman, Stark."

Tony knew it was time to stop pushing, or he might not be able to stall YN's departure to the Raft.  "A judge – today."

"You going to hire her a lawyer as well?"

Tony thought for a moment.  "I need to make a trip to Hell's Kitchen, but yeah, I'll have a lawyer for her."

 

"How long are we going to watch YN and Steve dance around the fact that they want to rip each other's clothes off?"

Nat turned her head and glared at Bucky.  "Until we can see when YN stopped acting like a lost little lamb and started acting like Volt again."

Bucky rolled his eyes and went back to staring at the screen in front of him.  It seemed liked they'd been watching the footage for days, but in reality it had only been a few hours.  Nat had insisted on both of them watching the same footage together in case one of them missed a subtle clue.  Bucky would have preferred that they each take half, but no one really argued with Nat when she was determined.  And she was always determined.

So far, they'd watched him, Steve, and YN enter the compound the first night as well as YN cooking her and Steve dinner.  Thankfully Nat had allowed him to turn off the audio, so he didn't have to listen to their conversation.  She'd reasoned that they could focus on body language easier without being distracted by any other sounds. He felt bad enough spying on them – it would have been entirely too intrusive to listen in on them as well.  And from the look on YN's face, Bucky was pretty sure he knew what Steve was telling her, and that wasn't a road he wanted to travel back down anytime soon.

They'd fast forwarded the footage at the slowest possible speed once YN and Steve had disappeared into her room.  Bucky had kept waiting for Steve to come back out and go to his room, but as the night wore on, he realized that he wasn't going to leave.  

Nat had made a snarky comment about Steve moving faster than she'd thought, but once they watched the awkwardness between the two of them the next morning in the gym, she'd recanted her earlier assumption.

"If I had to guess, I'd say he stayed with her because she didn't want to be alone."

"To me that's another check in her favor," Bucky said with a glance in Nat's direction.  "You agree?"

She nodded her head.  "Absolutely.  If she were lying about the amnesia, why would she want Steve near her while she was asleep?  She couldn't have been a hundred percent sure that she wouldn't accidentally mutter something in her sleep that would give her away."

They went back to silently watching the video.  When they got to the part where Steve had asked YN to dance in the kitchen, Bucky had started nodding his head in appreciation.

"That's my boy."

Nat rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle.  "How many boxes of condoms did you send with him?"

"Four," Bucky replied without taking his eyes off the screen.  "Woah, nice move, Stevie."

"I've gotta admit, that dip was a nice touch, but look at him."  Nat pointed at the screen.  "He's faltering.  He's not going to seal the deal."

"Don't count him out just. . .What?  Did she just. . .?"

Nat elbowed him in the ribs.  "Yes she did.  But look at that pan of sausage on the stove – it's staring to smoke."

Both of them let out a groan when Steve and YN suddenly broke apart and rushed to the stove to deal with the burning food.

"So close."

Bucky looked at Nat.  "It'll happen.  There's no way Steve is this upset unless the two of them got really close the past few days."

"Why do you say that?"

"There's only ever been one woman who could mess with his mind like that, and it wasn't until the two of them really got serious that he got that emotionally involved."

"Peggy Carter."

"The one and only."

"He has the worst luck with women, doesn't he?"

Bucky let out a long breath.  "You'd think someone like him could catch a break every now and then.  First he loses Peggy because his dumb ass couldn't relay coordinates before he crashed a plane, and now he finally lets himself fall in love again, and she turns out to be his archenemy."

"It could be worse."

"How?"

"She could've turned out to be totally evil."

"What makes you so sure she isn't?"

Nat turned her head and gave him a chiding look.  "You didn't see her in Tony's lab.  She's just as heartbroken as Steve."

They went back to watching the video, desperately searching for some clue that YN had been telling the truth.  Nothing about Steve and YN's day struck either of the former Russian assassins as odd – it seemed as though YN and Steve acted just any other couple in the beginning stages of a relationship.  

"She looks pretty determined, doesn't she?" Bucky asked as he watched YN slam her book closed and lean her head back against the cushions of the couch before jumping to her feet and rushing to Steve's room.

"Good for her.  If she'd waited for him to make a move, she'd spend the rest of her life twiddling her thumbs."

"Hey, that's my best friend you're talking about, Romanova."

"Tell me I'm wrong."

Bucky swore under his breath.  Of course she was right – Steve was the master of waiting too long to make a move.  If it hadn't been for Bucky pushing him with Peggy, those two would have never found what little bit of happiness they'd had during the war.

Nat sat back in her chair with a smug grin on her face as she watched Steve and YN fall into one another's arms on the screen before her.  She reached out and pressed fast forward before sitting back and letting the footage roll across the monitor.

"Is he not shaving?" Nat asked when Steve emerged from his room the next morning and began heading to the gym a few minutes after YN.

"Doesn't look like it."

"Hmph.  The scruff looks good on him."

"Oh, so you like a scruffy looking guy, do you?"

She reached over and raked her fingernails across his beard.  "I like you, don't I?"

He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips.  "You love me, Natalia.  Quit pretending you don't."

"Of course I. . ." she stopped speaking suddenly as the video on the screen before them turned black.  "What the hell?"  She turned to Bucky.  "Did you do something?"

"I didn't touch it."

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes, Agent Romanoff," the AI responded immediately.

"What happened to the security footage at. . ." she paused for a second to take the footage back to the last clear image and then relayed the date and time stamp from the bottom corner.

"Stealth Mode was engaged during the time in question."

Bucky and Nat both gave each other a skeptical look.  Neither of them had heard of Stealth Mode before.

"Who's protocol is that?" Nat asked, already knowing the answer to her question, but wanting confirmation from the AI.

"Stealth Mode is a protocol designed by Mr. Stark for when he and Ms. Potts are. . ."

"You can stop right there, FRIDAY," Bucky instructed as he buried his face in his hands.  "I don't need that mental image of Stark permanently seared into my brain."

"Remind me never to use that particular mat in the gym again," Nat joked as she began fast forwarding through the blackened images on the screen.

She and Bucky sat in front of their monitors for a few more hours as they continued to watch YN and Steve's movements.  Knowing how it all turned out made it that much harder to watch how happy the two of them had been, but they knew the only way to convince Steve that it hadn't all been a lie was to prove that YN hadn't regained her memories until right before he'd brought her back to the tower.

They'd snickered when the screen had gone black again after Steve and YN had woken up after a nap that hadn't seemed to end so well for Steve.  Nat had pulled up all the camera angles so she would be ready for when the picture returned, but from the way different cameras blacked out, she deduced that the couple was heading to the pool for some skinny dipping.  FRIDAY had started recording again once the two of them were in the pool – the water distorting their figures enough that you couldn't tell they were buck naked.

"Did you see that?" Nat asked as she leaned forward and paused the video.

"What?"

She pointed to the screen once she'd rewound it back to the moment that had caught her eye.  "There's a flash of bright blue when FRIDAY starts recording again."

Bucky scooted his chair closer to her monitor and squinted his eyes to see what Nat was talking about.  "This angle is a bit off, but yeah, I think her eyes shifted once she hit the water.  If she really did have amnesia, it's a miracle she didn't electrocute Steve in that pool."

"No, this proves that she didn't know who she was," Nat stated as she leaned back and crossed her arms.

"How so?"

"She knew she was being recorded at all times.  Volt has too much control over her powers to slip up like that where Steve could have seen.  I'm almost positive that this is when she started getting her memories back."

"Let's see what happens next."

Nat hit play again and the two of them focused on one monitor as they watched YN and Steve swim laps in the pool.  Bright flashes of light coming in through the wall of windows on the far side of the room clued her in to the incoming storm.

"That's it," she said as she shook her head.

"The storm."

She turned to meet Bucky's eyes.  "That storm is what turned the final key – I'd bet my life on it."

They shifted their attention back onto the monitor, but the screen turned black again as Steve exited the pool.  When the footage picked back up again, he was wrapped in a towel, but YN continued to swim laps.  Nat kept waiting for YN to leave the pool and go outside.  She was sure that the thunderstorm had been the catalyst that had sparked the return of her memories, but as they continued to watch, YN stayed in the pool swimming laps.

"No," Nat said as the screen turned black again. "Shit."

"Wait," Bucky said, pointing at the screen.  "It's already back up.  She just got out to grab a towel."

"She's heading back to the elevator."

"I guess she didn't go outside after all."

Nat paused the video and leaned in as close as she could without having the images before her start to blur.  She studied the scene for a few moments before she pointed to the far corner.  "Do you see that?"

"Is that a footprint?" Bucky asked as he took a closer look.

"A wet footprint by the door.  It's not there when the footage first picks back up, but it suddenly appears once's she starts walking to the elevator."  Nat played with the video to show Bucky was she was talking about.

"She was outside."

"And she altered this footage so we wouldn't see what happened out there." Nat's mouth lifted into a smirk as shook her head.  "She's good.  I never noticed that the footage of her swimming was on a loop, but she forgot the footprints – she must have been pretty shaken up.

"FRIDAY," Nat called out to the AI.  "Is there another copy of this video footage stored anywhere else?"

The AI answered immediately.  "Whenever Stealth Mode has been engaged, that footage is automatically rerouted into a separate file.  I'm afraid that Mr. Stark is the only person authorized to access those files."

"Dammit," Nat swore.

Bucky had a thought. "Is it just the sections that are blackened out, or does it include any footage before and after?"

"Mr. Stark programmed Stealth Mode to store all video footage ten minutes before the protocol is engaged and ten minutes after," the AI informed them.

"FRIDAY, are you aware that the video footage from the compound has been altered?" Nat asked.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Agent Romanoff.  It's impossible for anyone other than Mr. Stark to alter any surveillance footage on my system and I have no record of him accessing this particular recording."

"We won't know if the real footage is on the other files unless Stark gives us access," Bucky said with a hopeful look.

"He's in the lab with YN right now."

"If she knows that there's proof, do you think she'll be willing to let us show Steve?"

"I don't know," Nat said with a shake of her head.  "For now, I say we just pull Tony into the loop.  If he thinks she'll agree, then he can bring her up to speed.  Let's just hope she didn't know about the backup Tony installed in the program."

The two of them pushed back from the computer monitors and began making their way toward Tony's lab.  Nat had thought that finding out the truth behind YN's amnesia would have eased the tension in her shoulders, but not knowing if they could access the proof they needed had a feeling of nervousness settling into her gut.  She was never nervous about anything, so the fact that this situation was forcing her to feel things she didn't normally experience told her that this was too important to screw up.

When they burst through the door to the lab, the only person they found was Peter.  The kid was pacing back and forth across the floor and constantly looking down at the phone in his hand.

"Where's Tony?" Nat asked, causing the boy to jump and instinctively shoot an arc of webbing in her direction.

Nat easily dodged the sticky projectile and cocked an eyebrow in worry.

"I'm sorry. . .Mr. Stark is. . .he's just taking care of. . .he'll be back. . ."

Bucky held up a hand to stop Peter from stuttering.  "Where did he go?"

Peter knew he was no match for Agent Romanoff or Sergeant Barnes one on one, and now that they were both in the lab interrogating him, he was in trouble.  He crossed his arms over his chest to keep his hand from delving into his pocket to make sure the flash drive was still there.  He wasn't sure how he knew, but he was certain that Mr. Stark would want to keep YN's algorithm hidden from the others in the compound – at least until he could upload the program to the other investment firms on YN's list.

"Ms. YLN. . .I mean, YN. . .she wanted to show Mr. Stark something. . ." Peter said, trying to be evasive with his answer.

"Okay, you told us why they left, but you didn't tell us where they went," Nat said with a sweet smile on her face.

Peter's face fell as he tried to come up with an answer that didn't give away too much information.

"C'mon, kid," Bucky urged.  "It's not a hard question.  Where did they go?"

Letting out a dejected breath, Peter closed his eyes and dropped his head.  "They went back to her apartment."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 17 of this story!  The Reader is pretty determined to pay for her crimes. . .do you think Steve can be convinced that she’s not a villain? Why do you think Tony needs to make a trip to Hell’s Kitchen??? What did you think of Nat and Bucky watching the footage from the compound? I’m a huge WinterWidow shipper, so anytime I can allude to that relationship, I do! Had you guessed that the Reader would have missed something as simple as a wet footprint in her hurry to alter the footage? Do you think Peter can keep Bucky and Nat from following Tony to YN’s apartment? I look forward to your comments!_


	18. Chapter 18

Tony parked his car on the curb outside of the dilapidated building. "FRIDAY, are you sure this is the right address?"

"Yes, Boss, this is the correct address."

"Make sure no one steals my car," he told the AI as he got out and headed toward the door of the office building.

The stairs were littered with trash and the whole building stank of stale garbage and urine. How did someone with such a bright future end up somewhere like this? Walking down the hallway of the second floor, he looked at the faded names on the frosted glass windows until he found the one he was looking for. The decal had long been scraped away, but he could vaguely make out the name of the person he was there to see.

Opening the door to the reception area, he wasn't surprised to find it empty. Breezing past the unoccupied desk, he headed for the office in the back. He didn't bother to knock, but he did proceed as quietly as possible – he wanted to see for himself if the rumors were true.

A slender man with a day's old beard wearing red-tinted glasses sat behind the mostly bare desk skimming his fingers over a document before him. Tony deliberately made a noise to alert the other man to his presence.

"Can I help you?"

"I need a lawyer," Tony answered.

"I'm afraid I'm not taking any new clients. I'm sure you'll find someone else to help you with your case."

Tony looked down at the chair beside him and saw a small paperweight sitting on top of a cardboard box full of odds and ends in the seat. Picking it up, he tossed it in his hand to gauge the weight before lobbing it across the room toward the man behind the desk. He wasn't surprised when the other man caught it effortlessly.

"You know who I am," Tony stated as he walked closer to the desk. "And I know you're the Devil of Hell's Kitchen."

Matt slowly rose to his feet and placed the paperweight on his desk. "The answer is still no, Mr. Stark. I'm trying to keep a low profile these days."

Tony moved closer and waved his hand in front of Matt's face. "Is this all for show, or are you really blind?"

"I've told you I won't help you. . ."

"Oh, I don't need the Devil," Tony said as he plopped himself down in one of the visitor's chairs. "I need a lawyer, and you're just the man for the job."

Matt leaned forward and placed his palms flat against the desk. "You're telling me that you don't have at least a dozen attorneys on speed dial?"

Tony waved a hand and made a noise. "I'm helping out a friend."

"Still don't understand why you came to see me."

"I guess you could say that you and my friend have a lot in common."

"And how's that?"

"She's enhanced, just like you." Tony leaned forward. "So, tell me, how does it work? How is a blind man able to do the things you do?"

"I'm afraid the rumors about me are vastly overrated."

"You took down the Hand. Well, you and. . ." Tony paused to tap the device on his wrist to pull up the file he wanted. "You, and Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand. What do you guys call yourselves again? The Defenders?"

"We're not a team," Matt protested as he turned his back to Tony and faced the window behind him. "That was a one-time deal."

"I said the same thing a few years back. Now look at me."

"You're slumming it in Hell's Kitchen," Matt pointed out as he looked back over his shoulder. "What does that say about you?"

"Look. I'd hire the best lawyer money could buy if I thought my friend would allow it. Truth is, she's a bit of a wildcard and I think the two of you would get along really well."

"Who's this friend?" Matt asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.

Tony pulled up the file he had on Sparky and projected it before he remembered. "Can you see this? I'm not sure how your ability works, although I'd love to poke around your brain to get a better idea."

Matt stepped closer to the projection and studied the information before him. "Volt? You want me to defend Volt? Haven't you and Captain Rogers been trying to bring her down for months?"

"Like I said, you and her have a lot in common."

"She's a vigilante."

"She finally confided in me, but the damn martyr had to go and turn herself in to Secretary Ross before I could figure out a way to clear her name. Hence the reason I'm here."

"I don't see how I'll be any help. Ross normally sends enhanced individuals straight to the Raft without a trial."

"You know about the Raft?"

Matt let out a huff. "Every enhanced human knows about the Raft. It's the new bedtime story parents tell their kids to scare them into walking the straight and narrow."

"Hmph." Tony nodded his head. "Well, I may have threatened to go public with the fact that Ross ignores all semblance of due process when he sends someone out there. He agreed to get her before a judge today to be arraigned. And that's why I'm here."

"What makes you think she'll agree to let me represent her?"

"If you tell her who you are, she'll agree."

"I doubt she's ever heard the name Matt Murdock before."

Tony shook his head. "She won't know Matt Murdock, but everyone's heard about the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Don't worry, she won't rat you out to Ross – you can trust her."

"What was she doing, or do I not want to know?"

"She's exposing corrupt businessmen – investment bankers, lawyers, hospitals, you name it. Plus she's draining their personal bank accounts dry to ensure their victims get their money back."

Matt reached for the white cane laying on the corner of the desk. "What time is the arraignment?"

 

Nat and Bucky shared a look before turning back to Peter.

"How long have they been gone?" Nat asked as she narrowed her eyes.

"Uh. . .I'm not sure. . ." Peter stammered as he looked down at his phone. He knew exactly how long they'd been gone, but he was terrified to admit that to the two people standing before him. He'd debated with himself for the past few hours about whether he should bring them in to help, but he was convinced that Mr. Stark and YN would be back any minute.

"Don't bullshit me, kid," Bucky warned.

Nat laid a hand on Bucky's arm and gave him a look before turning back to Peter. "Why did they go back to YN's apartment?"

Peter looked down at his phone again and then glanced longingly toward the elevators hoping Mr. Stark would come back soon. "She, uh, she wanted to show him something."

"Wait," Nat said, holding up a hand. "Did she tell him what she's been up to?"

"No," Peter quickly answered, shaking his head. 

Bucky took a step closer to the boy and glared at him. "Don't lie to us. We know ways of making lesser men than you talk."

Peter gulped audibly as the color began to drain from his face.

"Leave the kid alone," Tony said as he strode into the lab. He walked straight to Peter and laid a hand on his shoulder. "What did you tell them?"

"Nothing, Mr. Stark. I swear, I didn't say a word."

"He told us that YN took you back to her apartment to show you what she's been working on," Nat said with a grin.

Tony looked back at Nat's smug face and then turned back to Peter with a look of disappointment. "Kid."

"Okay, I told them you went back to YN's apartment, but I swear that's all I said. They're so scary, Mr. Stark."

Bucky felt a moment of shame as Tony turned around and glared at him. He dropped the menacing look and gave an awkward shrug as he nodded toward the boy. "We think we figured out when YN got her memories back. We were just trying to find out where you were."

"And that involved intimidating the kid?" Tony raised his eyebrows and turned his glare on Nat. "You should know better, Romanoff."

Nat wasn't phased by Tony's chastising. "We have proof that YN really did have amnesia, or at least we will once you unlock the video surveillance." Tony started to speak, but Nat interrupted him. "Where is YN?"

Tony let out a dejected sigh. "She's in jail."

"What the hell, Tony? I didn't think you were going to turn her in to Ross. I should have known. . ."

Tony held up a hand to keep Nat from continuing her tirade. "She turned herself in, you can ask the kid."

Peter began to frantically nod his head up and down. "She did. She took us back to her place to show us what she's been doing and somehow she called Secretary Ross."

"Back up a minute," Bucky said as he gave Peter a scrutinizing look. "You never mentioned that you were there, too."

Peter's face fell again as he looked toward Tony to save him.

Tony shrugged one shoulder as he looked at Nat. "You told me to keep the kid close."

"Okay," Nat said, holding up a hand. "Let's go back to the beginning. What was she doing and why did you have to go back to her apartment? That place was trashed by Bernard's men."

Peter's face lit up. "That apartment was only a decoy. She has this super high-tech loft on the other side of the bookcase. You would have loved to have gotten your hands on the system she was running out of there."

"I'll take it from here, kid," Tony said to Peter before turning back to the others. "It's all going to come out soon enough, so I might as well just tell you. She's been uploading a program onto the servers of corrupt businessmen that will not only expose them for their crimes, but ensures that all the money in their personal offshore bank accounts is transferred to the people they've swindled."

"But the law firm?" Nat asked.

"Fraudulent billing hours. She also hit up Mount Sinai Hospital for their insurance fraud."

"Why haven't we heard about this in the news?"

"Because she's not finished yet," Tony explained as he turned back to Peter. "Do you still have it?"

Peter nodded his head and dug into his pocket for the flash drive.

Tony held up the small device. "Her algorithm is on here. There's two more businesses that need to be hit before the program goes online in less than five days."

"Are you sure they're corrupt?" Bucky asked.

"While we were waiting for her to be arraigned, I did some digging. They're just as bad, if not worse than Bernard. I may have accidentally discovered an undercover FBI investigation into one of them."

"Why not let the feds take care of this, then?" Nat asked.

"Because like YN pointed out, once the feds get involved, accounts get frozen and good people lose everything they've got. I'll explain the reasons behind why she's doing this later, but rest assured, she has a strong motive to ensure that innocent people don't get caught up in this mess."

Peter looked at Tony hopefully. "Are we really going to upload the algorithm onto the servers like she asked?"

"I've already made appointments at each company for tomorrow," Tony told him with a wry grin. "You want to come with?"

"Absolutely."

"Wait a minute, Tony," Nat interjected. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Only if we get caught." He brushed aside her concerns and changed the subject. "Now, you two said something about video footage from the compound. Why can't you access it?"

"It's under the Stealth Mode protocol," Nat said with a smirk. "FRIDAY says that you're the only one can view that footage. I have my suspicions why. . ."

"Oh, God, Nat," Bucky said as his face scrunched up in disgust. "I really don't want to think about Stark watching homemade sex tapes in his spare time."

Tony's eyes widened in surprise. "You don't think she got her memories back while Cap was. . .you know. . .spangling her stars?"

"Ew," Nat said as she shook her head. "No. She and Steve went skinny dipping in the pool. . ."

"Remind me to have that cleaned," Tony interrupted.

"As I was saying, they were skinny dipping, so FRIDAY engaged the Stealth Mode protocol. We're pretty sure YN got her memories back durning a thunderstorm, but she altered the footage so no one would discover she was Volt. We're hoping she didn't know about the back-up file FRIDAY keeps for the Stealth Mode footage."

"It's worth a shot," Tony said as he walked over to one of the monitors. "How did you figure out she altered the footage. She's a technological genius."

"Here, let me show you. FRIDAY pull up the video surveillance from the compound yesterday evening." 

Nat waited until the video started playing before leaning forward and adjusting it to the part where YN left the pool. "See here when the footage picks back up after she wraps the towel around herself." She pointed toward the floor in front of the door leading out to the patio. "If you watch carefully, when she starts toward the elevator. . ."

"Wet footprints," Tony said as he watched the lightning from outside illuminate the unmistakable shape of a woman's footprints just inside the door.

"We think she went outside and somehow the storm triggered her memories," Bucky explained. "FRIDAY said she keeps footage ten minutes prior to Stealth Mode being engaged and ten minutes after. We're hoping that what really happened out there will be on the other file."

Tony rubbed his goatee as he thought. "You're probably right, but you do realize why Stealth Mode engages? She'll be completely naked."

"Oh, I don't need to see that," Peter said as he took a step back. "None of us need to be watching that."

"I agree," Nat said. "Which is why I think I should be the only one to see it for right now. It's not ideal, but at least I'm a woman."

"I think Nat's right," Bucky said. "Open up the file, Stark, and we'll let Nat see if there's anything there. I don't want to invade YN's privacy any more than we have to, but if this can prove to Steve that she wasn't lying to him, then it'll be worth it in the long run."

"Okay," Tony agreed. "FRIDAY, pull up the Stealth Mode footage from yesterday evening."

"As you wish, Boss," the AI answered as the screen before them changed.

The men turned around and headed toward Tony's office in the back. Tony called out over his shoulder, "Tell us when you find something."

"Let's just hope there's something here to find," Nat muttered to herself as she pulled up a stool and mentally prepared herself to see more of Steve than she'd ever wanted to.

As she watched, it seemed as though the footage was exactly the same as what she and Bucky had seen, except for the portions that had previously been blacked out. She held up a hand to the screen when Steve exited the pool and headed toward the rack of towels in the corner. She'd been prepared, so she hadn't seen anything that would cause the Captain to blush profusely if he'd known what she was watching. 

Steve got on the elevator and YN continued to swim. Nat held her breath as she waited to see if YN would get out of the pool and head outside. When she began walking to the rack of towels, Nat let out a dejected breath, but then she cocked her head and thought for a minute. The footage she and Bucky had watched had shown her swimming longer than this footage had. Hopeful yet again, she focused back on the screen.

She let out an excited yelp when she saw YN heading toward the patio doors. When she saw YN place her hands on the glass and pause, Nat knew she was right. Tapping the corner of the screen, she switched camera angles to show the patio. YN walked out into the grass and extended her arms as she spun in a circle. Nat saw the bolt of lightning before the other woman did, but she wasn't prepared for what came next. As YN fell to the ground with her hands covering her head, the bolt of lightning struck her. Nat's eyes grew large, but she kept reminding herself that YN could handle that much voltage coursing through her body.

Nat's mouth had gone dry when YN had headed back to the patio doors. She could see the bright blue eyes reflected in the glass and her heart ached when she saw YN drop to her knees in obvious agony. YN lay on the concrete for what seemed like hours as she clutched her head and sobbed. Nat couldn't imagine how painful it must have been to have all of those memories suddenly return. She looked over her shoulder at Bucky and wondered if he'd felt that kind of pain when Shuri had returned his lost memories to him. For some reason, she doubted it. The Wakandan princess would never cause anyone deliberate harm, even for a good reason. Maybe they should have tried to contact T'Challa for his help when this whole thing started.

Nat shook her head to clear her thoughts. There was no use dwelling on the past. What was done was done, and they needed to worry about cleaning up the mess left behind. She looked back at the screen as YN drug herself back up and willed Volt to go away. Nat felt a moment's respect for the other woman for being able to clear her head and take the necessary steps to fix her problem – even if it meant lying to Steve. 

After YN had overridden FRIDAY's system and started toward the elevator, Nat rewound the video back to the point where she'd wrapped the towel around herself. Looking over her shoulder, she called the men back into the room.

"You'll want to see this," she told them as they gathered around. "She's wrapped in a towel, so you won't see anything you shouldn't, but we have the proof we need to show Steve."

Nat pressed play and stepped back so the three men could watch the footage. She didn't need to see it again, but she forced herself to watch anyway – she might pick up on something she missed the first time.

"That poor kid," Tony said when he saw YN fall to her knees and grasp her head to try to ease the pain.

Nat reached out and grabbed Bucky's hand. He turned to look at her as his fingers laced with hers. "It wasn't like that for me."

"I didn't say. . ."

"You were thinking it."

She gave him a smile and leaned into his shoulder as he bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"So, what now?" Peter asked once Nat reached over to pause the video. "Do we tell Captain Rogers?"

"Tell me what?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 18 of this story!  What did you think of the addition of Matt Murdock as the Reader’s lawyer? That was a last minute decision, but I like it. Do you think Matt will be able to get cleared of all charges, or will she still be heading to the Raft in a few days? Bucky and Nat finally have the proof they need, but will it be enough to sway Steve? His sudden appearance in Tony’s lab at the end seems hopeful, but we’ll have to wait to see what his true motives were. I look forward to your comments!_


	19. Chapter 19

"So, you're my lawyer," YN said as the guard led her into the small conference room and shut the door behind her. She walked over to the table and took a seat, her eyes never leaving the man who'd showed up out of nowhere a few hours ago and informed her in no uncertain terms that she would be pleading "Not Guilty."

"I'm Matt Murdock," he said as he extended his hand in her direction.

YN eyed him warily before reaching out and taking the offered hand. She was shocked when instead of shaking it, he turned her hand over and began to examine the dampener on her wrist.

"I thought you were supposed to be blind."

"Technically I am," he answered as he let go of her hand and sat back in his chair. "Tony Stark says I can trust you."

She cocked her head and gave him a wry grin. "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

Matt chuckled. He already liked her, but he still wasn't sure how much help he could offer her. "Stark told me that you have a distrust of lawyers – that a major law firm in the city was one of your targets."

YN glanced nervously around the room.

"They can't record us in here," Matt assured her. "Attorney-client-privilege. Anyway, Stark came to me because we have a few things in common."

"You're enhanced," YN stated with a nod. "So, what, you have some form of eyesight that you don't want the government to know about, so you became a lawyer?"

"Pretty much."

"Do you do anything with your abilities other than try to keep other enhanced people out of jail?"

"What do you know about the Devil of Hell's Kitchen?"

YN leaned forward in her seat and stared at Matt with wide eyes. "You're not him, are you?"

"Let's just say that he and I see eye to eye."

She started to laugh. "I like that. You're pretty funny for a soul-sucking snake."

"You don't have a high opinion of lawyers, do you?"

"It's been my experience that most of your lot are only in it for themselves, so no, I don't care for lawyers."

He nodded his head and opened the fake file folder before him. He began to skim his fingers over the Braille on the page just in case the guard outside decided to glance in. "Like the judge said in the arraignment, you're being charged with breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon – that's you, by the way – hacking, and other various cyber crimes. . ."

"They can't prove any of that," YN interrupted with a smug look. "Well, the B & E and the assault, yeah. They've got me there, but the rest of it – if Tony couldn't figure out what I was up to, I doubt the District Attorney will even come close."

"And that's the focus of our strategy."

"What? That they can't prove the cyber crimes? What about the B & E and the assault charges?"

"The B & E in itself is only a misdemeanor, but when you factor in the aggravating factor of assault with a deadly weapon, that bumps it up to a felony charge. Coupled with your enhanced abilities, the DA will most certainly ask for a life sentence on the Raft with no parole."

"Even if no one was actually hurt? The security guards didn't have a mark on them – they just took a little nap on the job."

"Are you sure about that?"

YN nodded her head. "I swear, I didn't hurt anyone. Well, other than Steve and Tony, but they had it coming. And I doubt either one of them will testify against me."

"I spoke to the DA before coming down here to see you and we both agreed that a bench trial will be the best option for you. He doesn't want you in the county jail longer than you have to be, and I don't think you'll find a jury in New York that can be impartial."

"Wait a second," YN said, holding up a hand. "What's a bench trial?"

"Sorry. A bench trial is when the judge hears all of the evidence and delivers the verdict himself."

"So no jury?"

Matt shook his head. "No jury."

YN took a moment to think about what he'd just told her. "Okay. I think you're right. I want to get this over with as soon as possible." A determined look set on her face as she studied the man sitting in front of her. "How long with this take?"

"The DA's office is pushing this through faster than usual," Matt explained. "They're waiving the pre-trial conference since we've opted to go with the bench trial instead of jury. The DA requested five days to prepare his evidence."

"How long do you think the trial will last?" YN asked as she thought about her algorithm. In five days, the program would go live, and that could mean that her cyber crimes would be revealed to the world. She closed her eyes and shook her head. She'd let this lawyer start to get her hopes up, but she knew there was no way Ross was going to let her go. It didn't matter though – there was nothing left for her on the outside anyway.

"It depends on how much evidence the DA has to present. There's a possibility that this could be over in one day, or it could last for a week. We won't know until they've turned over their discovery to me."

"Is this all really necessary? I mean, we all know that I'm going to the Raft no matter what happens in that courtroom."

Matt took a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. "I know I won't have any problems getting the cyber crimes thrown out – there's no evidence – it's the assault charges that we need to be worrying about. If we can convince the judge that you didn't actually harm anyone, then all they've got is the B & E, and like I said, that's just a misdemeanor."

"But when you factor in the fact that I'm enhanced, will the judge still treat it as a misdemeanor?"

"How would you feel about spending a year or two on the Raft?"

She started to say something but then she stopped, her mouth half open as she let out a slow breath. Closing her mouth, she pressed her lips together and began to think. Could he really convince a judge, and Ross, to let her spend a few years on the Raft and then be done? It couldn't be that easy, could it?

"Are you still with me?" Matt asked when YN continued to stay silent.

"A few years on the Raft is no picnic, but even that feels like wishful thinking."

"Stark said that your algorithm still had a few days before it activated – how long before the public finds out what's going on with these companies?"

YN bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. "Most of the companies will try to hide what's going on for as long as possible because once it gets out, they'll be facing charges themselves. It depends on the DA, but if he can present his case in a day or less, and you can do the same, there's a good chance that no one will find out what I was doing until after the verdict."

She paused and leaned forward. "Once it comes out, though, can't they go back and retry me for the cyber crimes?"

"Can they prove it was you?"

A slow smile spread across YN's face. "They can try, but I don't leave a signature on my work – I'm not that egotistical."

"If they can't prove it, then it's circumstantial evidence. And I truly doubt the judge will see what you've done as a crime – it's computer hacking, yes, but you didn't actually steal any of the money for yourself, you just returned it to its rightful owners." He paused and tilted his head. "Wait. You didn't actually take any of the money for yourself, did you?"

She laughed as she shook her head. "No, all of my money was inherited from my adoptive parents. I have no use for stolen money. The whole point of what I'm doing is to return money that's been taken from hard-working individuals who made the mistake of trusting the wrong people."

"Okay," Matt said as he shut the file folder. "We have a plan, and I think it has a decent shot at working. As soon as I find out what the DA has, I'll be back to discuss final strategies before the trial starts. Are you going to be alright here?"

"They've got me in solitary." She chuckled and lifted her wrist. "They think I'm going to be a problem, but they underestimate Tony's tech. And anyway, I'm not looking to start any trouble. I just want this to be over with as soon as possible so I can resign myself to whatever fate lies ahead of me."

Matt rose and unfolded his cane. He walked toward the door, but paused and turned back around. "I can't promise you anything, YN, but I won't bullshit you either – this is a long shot."

"But it's the only shot I've got."

 

"Tell me what?" Steve asked again when no one in the room bothered to answer him. He narrowed his eyes and looked around. "Where's Volt?"

Tony stepped away from the monitor and began walking toward Steve. "She's in jail."

Steve's gaze turned icy as he directed his stare toward Nat. "I thought you told me that she was going to be here with Stark for a while."

"Don't blame her," Tony said, causing Steve's attention to turn back to him. "YN set me up. I'm the one who let her get taken in by Ross."

Steve closed his eyes and ran his hands down his face. 

"If you remember correctly, you're the one who dumped her at my feet like some mangy dog you'd taken to the pound," Tony pointed out as he sauntered toward Steve. "Don't tell me you're having second thoughts now."

Steve looked up at him, his eyes full of anger. "It doesn't really matter. We all knew she was heading to the Raft sooner or later."

"Then why are you here, Steve?" Bucky asked, keeping his voice calm so as not to agitate his friend any further.

Steve shook his head. "I don't know." He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. "I guess I just wanted some answers."

"You have a funny way of showing it," Tony spat at him. "You can be a real son of a bitch, you know that Rogers?"

"Since when did she become your new pet project? Last time I checked, you hated her more that I did – you were the one who insisted on calling her Sparky to get a rise out of her."

"If you'd taken the time to get your head out of your ass, you would've seen how broken she was when you brought her back this morning."

Steve uncrossed his arms and balled his fists at his side. "Oh, so she batted her eyelashes and fed you some sob story and now all of a sudden you're on her side?"

Nat walked over and laid a hand on Steve's arm. "It wasn't just Tony. I saw it too, Steve."

Steve's anger deflated a bit. "Whatever. Just tell me what you found out so we can all move on with our lives."

Bucky and Nat exchanged a look before she guided Steve over to the monitors. She had FRIDAY pull up the altered footage on a different monitor and hit play as she began to explain. "This is the footage from last night. FRIDAY engages Stealth Mode a few times, so the screen will momentarily go black."

Steve watched the footage in silence, his expression giving away nothing. When YN began walking toward the elevators, he turned back to Nat. "What was the point of having me watch that?"

"Look," she said as she rewound the video and pointed out the sudden appearance of the wet footprint.

"She altered the footage."

Nat shook her head. "Thankfully FRIDAY keeps a copy of the surveillance in a different file when Stealth Mode has been engaged, and YN didn't find it."

"You're saying you have a copy of what really happened?"

"You might want to sit down for this," Bucky said as he pulled up a stool and forced his friend to sit.

Nat hit play on the other monitor and they all took a step back to give Steve a little privacy while he watched the video.

"Oh God," Steve said when he saw the bolt of lightning strike YN. He leaned forward to get a better look and was instantly sorry he had when he saw her fall to the ground in obvious agony at the patio doors.

When Steve buried his face in his hands, Nat leaned over him and stopped the video. "You deserved to know the truth."

"I should have seen it," he said, finally looking up at his friends. "She was acting differently, but she told me she was slowly getting her memories back, so I chalked it up to that."

"Wait," Tony said as he held up a hand. "She told you her memories were coming back? Why would she do that if she didn't want to come clean with you eventually?"

"You weren't there, Tony."

"Then explain it to me so I'll understand."

"Boys," Nat interjected as she stepped in between them. "Don't fight in front of the kid – it's not good for him to see his parents arguing."

Nat's words had the intended effect on Tony and a smile spread across his face as he glance back toward a scandalized-looking Peter. "Touché."

"I give up trying to figure her out," Steve said as he shook his head. "Weren't you able to get anything out of her before you turned her over to Ross."

"First of all, she turned herself in," Tony said as some of his anger returned. "If I had known that what she'd planned to do when I took her back to her apartment, I would've never agreed to go."

"What do you mean, she turned herself in?"

Tony became flustered for a minute, his hands waving around erratically. "I don't know. She had some type of computer program set up so that when she hit a certain series of keystrokes, it called Ross. I was barely able to get the kid out in time before he showed up and hauled her away."

"Why would she turn herself in? I don't understand."

"You're an even bigger idiot than I thought you were, Rogers." Tony let out a huff and crossed his arms. "She did it because she knew it was the only way you'd ever believe that she wasn't lying to you."

The color drained from Steve's face as he realized that Tony was right. He turned and walked away from the group to think for a moment. Volt would have never done that, but YN – the YN he'd come to know over the past few days wouldn't hesitate to turn herself in for him. Tony's reasoning was the only logical explanation for why she would willingly give herself up to Ross and risk spending the rest of her life on the Raft. 

Steve's despair quickly shifted to anger as he turned and focused his glare on Tony again. "You knew she hadn't been lying to me and you still let Ross take her to the Raft?"

"She's not on the Raft," Nat said, causing Steve to stop in his tracks. "Tony worked some of his magic and got her an appearance before a judge. She's in county lockup right now."

"Why are you doing this, Tony?" Steve asked, suddenly curious as to the other man's motives. "Why would you go to all this trouble? I know it's not for me."

"You're right about that," Tony said with a smirk. "I'm doing this for her. I'm doing this because we were wrong about her and we. . .no, let me rephrase that. . . I need to make this right."

"What did she tell you?"

Tony looked back at the other three people in the room. Nat and Bucky shrugged their shoulders, but Peter actually stepped forward.

"I think you should tell him, Mr. Stark."

"Tell me what, Tony?"

Tony waved back the kid and turned to face Steve again. "I'm not going to tell you everything because it's not my story to tell. Maybe someday you'll earn back her trust and she'll tell who she really is. What I will tell you is what she's been up to."

Tony grabbed the flash drive from the table where he'd laid it a few minutes before and held it up for Steve to see. He plugged it into the monitor and pulled up the program. "This is the algorithm she created."

"What does it do?" Steve asked as he looked at the indecipherable code on the screen in front of him.

"It hacks into the personal offshore bank accounts of dozens of investment bankers, lawyers, and hospitals in the city. . ."

"For God's sake, Tony."

"I wasn't finished," Tony said with a glare in Steve's direction. "These businesses are corrupt and are stealing money from their clients. YN's algorithm transfers money from the offshore accounts into the accounts of the people they're stealing from."

"It's still illegal."

"Maybe so, but it's also genius," Tony said, still in awe at YN's program. "It calculates exactly how much money each person is owed based on the rise and fall of the stock market and fluctuating interest rates. It's one of most complex computer programs I've ever seen."

"You want her on the team, don't you?"

Tony cocked his head and gave Steve a knowing smile. "Tell me you don't."

"Okay, fine," Steve said as he threw his arms up in defeat. "She'd be an asset to the team. I still don't see why that matters since she's most likely going to prison for the rest of her life. Don't forget that Ross is out for blood and if he can't see us locked up, he'll settle for anyone and everyone else that pops up on his radar."

"I hired an attorney to represent her," Tony explained. "He's had experience with people like her, so he might be able to work a miracle for us."

"Wait," Nat said with a shocked look on her face. "You didn't retain your usual lawyer?"

Tony gave her a chiding look. "Harvey doesn't exactly have experience with enhanced individuals."

"But Pearson Specter Litt is the best law firm in the city."

"You really think she was going to let a corporate attorney represent her?"

"Who'd you hire, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked.

"Matt Murdock."

"Who the hell is Matt Murdock?" Nat asked in frustration.

"He's the lawyer that represented Frank Castle," Tony answered reluctantly.

"The Punisher? You hired the guy that. . ." Nat paused as she closed her eyes and threw back her head. "I think you're forgetting that Frank Castle ended up going to prison."

"I'm not naïve enough to think that YN's going to walk away from all this free and clear. But if he can convince the judge to give her a few years for the breaking and entering and assault charges, then that's better than a life on the Raft. I mean, isn't it?"

Steve shook his head. "It won't do any good, Tony. We all know that Ross will make sure she never sees the light of day again."

"Steve. . ." Nat began.

Steve held up a hand to stop her. "It's no use, Nat – she's gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 19 of this story! Matt seems optimistic that he might be able to convince a judge not to give her a life sentence. Any ideas how the trial is going to turn out? As for Steve. . .now he knows the truth. Do you think he’s taking out the anger he feels towards himself on Tony? Can either Steve or Tony do anything to keep the Reader from going to the Raft? I look forward to your comments!_


	20. Chapter 20

Tony pulled up in front of the sleek office building on Wall Street and made a dramatic show of exiting the car.  At once, a valet was at his side to take the keys Tony had left dangling from his index finger.  He paused by the door and waited for Peter to scramble around the front of the car, his nerves making him clumsy and awkward.

"Easy kid," Tony whispered as he nodded to the other uniformed man who promptly opened the door for them.  "The key to not looking suspicious is to not look suspicious."

Peter straightened his shoulders and tried to emulate the look on Tony's face.  The billionaire let out a snort and shook his head.

"You look constipated."

Peter's shoulders slumped and he let out a deep sigh.  "I don't know if it was a good idea to bring me along, Mr. Stark."

"Nonsense," Tony said as he gave the receptionist a flirty wave and headed straight for the bank of elevators to the left of the main desk.  "I need you to upload the program while I distract them."

As they entered the elevator, they were met by one of the senior managing partners, Brandt Cooper.  Tony immediately stopped talking and plastered his best fake smile on his face as he took the man's offered hand.

"Mr. Stark, it's an honor to have you here today," Cooper said with a skeptical smile.  "But I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't curious."

Tony dismissed his concerns with a wave.  "Oh, you know me.  I'm always looking for something better.  Don't get me wrong, my investment firm is top-notch, but it never hurts to see what else is out there."

"I couldn't agree more.  I'm sure you'll find Jackson Cooper & Tomlinson is more than qualified to meet your needs.  We offer a variety of investment options – stocks, bonds, mutual funds – you name it.  Did you happen to bring your personal portfolio with you so that we can get an idea of what you're looking for?"

"The kid has it," Tony answered nodding toward the satchel Peter had slung over his shoulder.

"Ah, I see," Cooper said with a smile and a nod in Peter's direction.  "And you are?"

Peter extended his hand.  "Peter Parker.  I'm Mr. Stark's intern."

Cooper shook Peter's hand and then turned back to Tony.  "He's a little young to be an intern, isn't he."

"It's a part of our new Big Brother/Big Sister program the September Foundation is sponsoring," Tony said, making up the lie on the spot.  He lightly nudged Cooper in the ribs with his elbow.  "Never hurts to have free child labor, right?"

Tony could see the change in Cooper's demeanor almost instantaneously.  With that one remark, Brandt Cooper had gone from seeing Tony as a man to be fearful of to one that was on the same page as him.  Tony held back a smile and let the investment banker lead him through a series of well-furnished hallways back to his corner office with an impressive view of the city.

"Please make yourself at home," Cooper said before turning to his assistant and instructing him to bring them some coffee.

Tony unbuttoned his suit jacket and made a show of choosing the only chair available in the sitting arrangement.  He could tell that Cooper was perturbed at having his seat taken, but the other man fixed a smile on his face and chose to sit on the small loveseat opposite Tony, leaving Peter with the entire sofa to himself.

"Peter, show Mr. Cooper my portfolio."

Peter opened the satchel and pulled out the fake documents Tony had printed out that morning.  He'd explained to Peter that he wanted it to look real, but there was no way he was giving these con-men access to his personal holdings.  

Cooper took the stack of papers and started leafing through them.  "This is impressive.  Your firm has done a fair job of helping your investments grow, but I think we can do better than this.  Why don't you let me keep these and I'll have a proposal worked up for you by the end of the week?"

Tony met Peter's eye briefly and gave him a small nod – their plan was working perfectly.  "That sounds lovely.  Meanwhile, I'd like to talk to you about security."

Cooper glanced up, a look of shock on his face.  "What do you mean?"

"Let's be honest here," Tony said as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.  "Sparky hit a lot of places and Captain Rogers and I didn't always stop her.  I want to make sure that you're prepared to handle a threat like her in the future."

"I can assure you that our firm wasn't a target of hers," Cooper quickly assured him.  "And anyway, didn't I hear that they apprehended her yesterday?"

"Secretary Ross thinks she might not be working alone," Peter added, earning him a glare from Tony.

"That's not public knowledge, kid," Tony chided, instantly proud of his protégé for thinking up the lie so quickly. 

Cooper seemed to be eating up the fake insider knowledge, and Tony hoped that it would help to sway him to give them access to his server banks so they could upload the program.  He waited for a moment to see what Cooper would do next.

"You know what?  I think it might be a good idea to have an expert take a look at our security.  It'd be a feather in our cap to not only have Tony Stark's accounts, but to also have his seal of approval on our security measures."

Tony's face split into a wide grin as he and Peter followed Cooper back out of the office and through the maze of hallways.  He couldn't believe how well this was working, but he was hesitant to call it a successful mission until Peter had uploaded the algorithm and they walked out of the building with no one else being the wiser.

Cooper stopped in front of a nondescript door and looked back at Tony with a wink before punching in a code on the keypad to the right of what appeared to be a reinforced steel door.  

Tony felt the rush of cool air as Cooper swung open the door to the server banks.  He followed along obediently behind his host with Peter close on his heels.  This room was set up just like every other one he'd seen – rows upon rows of servers with a myriad of flashing lights and the faint sound of machinery humming.  The overly cool air had the skin on the back of his neck prickling, but with this many computers running, it was imperative that the air conditioning be set low enough to keep them from overheating.

"So, tell me what security measures you have in place?" Tony asked once Cooper had stopped at the central hub.

Tony tuned him out almost immediately, but continued to keep a placid smile on his face as he nodded every few seconds to make it seem like he was listening.  He was just waiting for an opportunity to get him away from the central hub so Peter could install the program.

After what felt like hours, Cooper finally stopped talking and asked Tony if he had any questions.  Thankful that the operation was close to being finished, he placed a hand on Cooper's back and pointed toward the opposite side of the room.  Making up some inane question, he began to lead the man down the aisle.

Tony paused for a moment and turned back to Peter.  "Stay here and don't touch anything, do you understand?"

Peter nervously shoved his hands into his pockets and began nodding frantically.  "Yes sir. . .don't touch. . .got it Mr. Stark."

Cooper began laughing and was soon engrossed with his conversation with Tony.  Peter saw Tony give him the okay sign behind his back and he quickly retrieved the flash drive.  Glancing around quickly to make sure he was alone, he plugged it into the USB port and pulled up the program.  A progress bar appeared at the bottom of the screen and slowly began to fill up as the algorithm began to load onto the servers.  

Peter stepped away from the monitor and edged his way to the end of the row.  Tony and Cooper were still at the other end of the room discussing something Peter wasn't really interested in.  He looked back over his shoulder and let out a groan when he saw that the program wasn't even a third of the way uploaded.

Sneaking back to the edge of the servers, Peter checked again to make sure that Tony and Cooper weren't headed back.  His heart was racing and he felt as jittery as the day Ned had dared him to drink five Red Bull's all at once to see if it made his Spidey-sense more acute.  It hadn't, but he'd ended up with the worst headache of his life afterward.  He was pretty sure that after today, he'd most likely wind up in bed with another raging headache.

After what seemed like forever, the upload finally completed.  He pulled the flash drive from the port and stuffed it back into his pants pocket.  With nothing else to do, he began to pace up and down the aisle, his fingers grazing over the glass paneled doors of the servers while he waited for the two men to come back.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked.  "I told you not to touch anything."

"I. . .uh. . .huh?" Peter snatched his hand back and shoved them both into his pockets, but when he saw Tony wink at him, he let out a nervous breath and began to play along again.  "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark.  I guess I was just getting bored."

"Whatever, kid," Tony said, irritation dripping off of his words.  "I've got all the deets.  Time to go."

Peter followed along behind Tony and Cooper as the senior partner led them back to the elevators.  He'd left the stack of phony spreadsheets in Cooper's office, but he still held onto the strap of the satchel as though it contained all the secrets of the universe.

Cooper walked them to the front door and shook Tony's hand.  "I'm heading back upstairs to go over your accounts right now and I'd just like to say that all of us at Jackson Cooper & Tomlinson look forward to doing business with you, Mr. Stark."

"It's been a pleasure," Tony said with a beaming smile as the valet pulled up to the curb with his car.  With one final wave to Cooper, he and Peter got in.

Peter reached into the backseat and grabbed the other stack of phony spreadsheets and slipped them into the satchel as Tony began weaving his way through the dense New York traffic.

"How'd it go?"

"Just like we planned," Peter answered with a nod.  "The program is uploaded and ready to go."

"Good.  You ready to do this again?"

Peter's face broke out into a grin.  He knew what they were doing was technically illegal, but he liked the idea of helping people that stood to lose everything if he and Tony did nothing.   Settling back into the leather seat, he mentally prepared himself to repeat the same act at the Carnifex Group.  They were the one's that were already on the FBI's radar, so he felt a lot better about making sure those managing partners lost everything before the company was outed as a fraud.

The second time around was a lot easier now that he knew what to expect, but Peter was careful not to let himself become complacent and screw it up.  Not only was Tony counting on him, but so was YN.  He'd only met her briefly, but she'd treated him with respect despite his age.  He knew what he was doing wouldn't help her out with Secretary Ross, but it would give her peace of mind knowing that her plan had been carried out completely.

That was why he was so shocked when he and Tony got back into the car after the successful mission at the Carnifex Group and the billionaire dropped a bomb on him.

"You did good today, kid," Tony said as he quickly glanced over at Peter.  "You still got the drive?"

Peter dug it out of his pocket and placed it in Tony's outstretched hand.  "Now what?"

Tony held up the flash drive and inspected it for a second.  "Now we take this to Ross and tell him exactly what Sparky has been up to."

 

Steve stared at the screen in front of him.  He'd been watching the surveillance footage of him and YN for hours and his eyes were starting to blur.  Dawn had come and gone long ago, but he couldn't work up the energy to care.  

He'd screwed up.  

Not only had he hurt the woman he loved, but his anger and unwillingness to listen to her had forced her to make a drastic move to make him see that she really did love him.

He'd dug out his sketchbook earlier the night before and had paused the video in certain spots so that he could sketch out the look on her face at certain intervals.  He'd been surprised and little embarrassed when he saw the way she'd stared at his backside as they'd entered the compound that first night, but he'd managed to capture the appreciative gleam in her eyes and it made him smile to see her so open and carefree.

The moment just before she'd kissed him in the kitchen had been another memory that he hadn't wanted to forget.  If he were being honest with himself, he wanted every second of their time together permanently etched into his mind, and he could have spent the rest of his life drawing each nuance of her face.  As he continued to draw, he realized just how much she wore her heart on her sleeve, and he couldn't believe that he'd ever thought she'd been lying to him.

By the time he'd gotten to that last night together, he'd finally realized what he'd tried to deny once he'd learned the truth – her entire demeanor had changed after their time in the pool.  She'd developed slight frown lines between her brow once she'd rejoined him in the kitchen, but he hadn't been paying attention.  Her shoulders had been more tense and her posture was more on edge.  Now that he knew what had really happened, he could see the different as plain as day.  

When they'd disappeared into his room, he'd let the video keep playing as he remembered that last night they'd been together.  He'd sensed then that there was something different about her and now he knew that she'd known it might be the last time they'd ever be together and she wanted to eke out every ounce of pleasure they could bring to one another.  

He grabbed his pencil and began to draw the way she'd looked at him just before she'd fallen asleep.  There was a sadness in her eyes that he'd never seen before, but he'd been too caught up in his own emotions to really pay attention.  

He was paying attention now.  

As he put the final touches on his drawing, movement on the screen caught his eye.  He focused on the image of himself storming out of the room and he knew what was coming next.

He forced himself to watch what parts FRIDAY had recorded, and he felt his cheeks burning with shame at the way he'd treated her.  Seeing himself come out of his bedroom again with a cleanly shaven face had him closing his eyes as he absentmindedly rubbed his smooth jawline.  He wanted to stop there, but he needed to see it through to the end.  He needed to see the look in her eye just before they left, if only to remind himself that if he ever got the chance to make it up to her, that he would never make her feel the way he had that morning.

Once the monitor had gone black for the last time, he leaned back in his seat and started flipping through his sketchbook.  He had a few dozen pictures of her and each one showcased a particular memory that he desperately wanted to remember and cherish.  

But there was one picture that didn't quite belong – the picture he'd done of Volt lying in his bed.  It was the only one in color and the bright blues radiated off the page like a neon sign in the dark.  Even with the haughty smirk on her face, she was still beautiful – and she was still one facet of the woman he loved.  Volt infuriated him with her constant taunting and goading, but she'd also pushed him to be the best version of himself.

As his fingers grazed over the lines he'd drawn, he remembered the way she'd lain on the patio with the rain pelting down on her as she sobbed in pain.  Volt hadn't been haughty and cruel that night – she'd just been a woman who'd been faced with a situation she wasn't ready to deal with.

Steve felt as though he understood his nemesis a little better after seeing her at her most vulnerable, and he knew that deep down, Volt and YN were the same woman.  YN had also been haughty and cruel while she'd waited on him at the bookstore, but the loss of her memories had softened her and Steve knew that the woman he'd spent the past few days with was the woman she kept hidden from the world.

That only left Sydney Cartwright.

Steve shook his head and closed his sketchbook as he pulled up the webpage he'd opened the night before.  He'd spent a few hours searching through all the public records available for Sydney, but nothing he read gave him any clue as to who the woman really was.

He glanced at the clock and realized that it was almost noon.  Rising from his desk, he grabbed his leather coat and headed toward the elevators.  There was only one person he could think of to help him finally understand the last piece of the puzzle that was YN, and he only hoped that she might have some insight to share with him.

Exiting the elevator car at the garage level, he wove his way through the flashy sports cars and expensive all-terrains that Tony had collected over the years.  Skipping past all of those, he came to the Harley Davidson Softail Breakout that he'd brought with him from D.C.  Swinging one leg over to straddle the bike, he turned the key and felt the powerful engine roar to life.  Shifting it into gear, he made his way out of the garage and into the heavy late morning traffic of New York City.  He'd memorized the address before he'd left the tower, so it was just a matter of finding the quickest route to get to his destination. 

Once he'd pulled up in front of the apartment building, he squeezed the bike into a spot between two compact SUVs and stood on the sidewalk looking up at the rows of windows for a moment.  Squaring his shoulders, he jogged up the stairs and looked at the list of residents on the chart by the door.  Finding the one he wanted, he pushed the button and waited.

"Hello?" a distorted voice called out from the speaker box.

"It's Steve Rogers," he said, leaning down so that he could be heard.  "Can we talk for a few minutes?"

There was no answer, but he heard the click of the main door and took that as an invitation to go on up.  The foyer was in a sad state of disrepair with cracked tile floors and peeling paint on the walls.  Steve gave the elevator a hard look before deciding not to chance it and choosing instead to take the stairs.

When he reached the fourth floor, he was surprised to see her standing in the doorway of her apartment with her arms crossed over her chest and one hip leaning against the jam.  He stopped and let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders.

"You're the last person I ever expected to show up on my doorstep," she said with a shake of her head as she straightened up and motioned for him to follow her into the apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 20 of this story!  So, we ended up with two cliffhangers in this part! Oops! What did you think of Tony and Peter? I just love writing Peter, he’s so much fun! How did you feel about Tony’s last revelation? Any ideas as to why he decided to tell Ross everything? And then we have Steve. That boy is beating himself up pretty badly, but he deserves it for the way he treated her. He finally sees how horribly he screwed up, but is he too late? Who do you think he went to see at the end???  I look forward to your comments!_


	21. Chapter 21

Steve followed Kyle into her apartment and took a seat at the small kitchen table she'd indicated.  She filled a teakettle with water and placed it on the stove before opening a cabinet and pulling down a couple of mugs.

"Camomile or Earl Grey?" she asked as she held up two boxes.

"I'll have the Earl Grey, please," Steve said.  "No sugar or cream, either."

"I take my tea black as well," she said as she placed the box of camomile back into the cupboard.

Steve stayed silent while he watched Kyle putter around the kitchen making the tea.  He didn't really want anything, but he knew it was helping her calm her nerves before they began talking about YN.  He wasn't sure how much she'd learned in the past few days, but he was sure that she would also have some questions for him.  He just hoped that she had the answers he needed.

As she placed the steaming cup of tea in front of him, he thanked her and began gently blowing on the hot liquid before taking a sip.  She sat across from him in the other seat and leaned her elbows on the table.

"When did you get back home?" he asked.

"Last night," she answered as she took a tentative sip of her tea.  "Thank you again for arranging the safe house.  Although now we know it was all for nothing."

"Did you know?"

Kyle looked up from her tea to meet his eyes as she began to slowly shake her head.  "I had no clue.  YN has been my best friend for over four years and I literally had no clue she was enhanced, let alone a vigilante being hunted by the Avengers."

"It came as quite a shock to me as well," Steve said with a laugh.

"What happened, Steve?"

He took a deep breath and idly began to play with the rim of his mug.  He wasn't sure how to answer her.  She deserved to know the truth, but he was worried that if she knew how he'd treated her best friend that she wouldn't be willing to tell him what she knew about Sydney.  There was a good possibility that she would toss the contents of her mug in his face and demand that he get out of her apartment – and she would be completely justified in doing so.

In the end, he went with the truth.  Too many lies had been told and they had brought nothing but pain and heartbreak to everyone around them.  Kyle deserved to know who her friend really was and what Steve had done to bring about the predicament she was in at the moment.

Kyle listened quietly for the most part, only interrupting a few times to ask for clarification or to make a sarcastic remark about something YN had done while she'd had the amnesia.

"I'm so sorry that you two had to go through all of that," Kyle said once Steve had finished telling his story.

"You're not angry with me?"

"Oh, I'm so pissed off at you right now I can barely see straight, but that's not going to help anything."

Steve let out a huff and took another sip of his tea.  "She's in a lot of trouble right now.  Tony's hired her a lawyer, but I'm not sure he's going to be able to keep her off the Raft."

"Didn't I hear a rumor once that you'd broken into that prison and rescued some of your friends?"

"That's always a possibility, but she'd have to spend the rest of her life on the run."

"And she doesn't have the resources for that.  Volt never kept any of the money she'd stolen, right?"

Steve paused and let out a breath.  Either Kyle didn't know about Sydney, or she didn't think he knew, but now was the time to ask.

"About that.  What do you know about Sydney Cartwright?"

"The vapid airhead that owns the bookstore?"

Steve stared at her for a moment to see if there was any trace of deception in her gaze.  When he was sure he saw none, he explained.  "Sydney Cartwright is another one of YN's aliases."

Kyle began to shake her head in disbelief.  "No.  That can't be true.  There's no way she would keep that from me."

"I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you all of this."  He paused to give her a moment to collect herself.  "Did you ever meet Sydney?"

"Nope, never met her.  YN was the one that interviewed me all those years ago and she's the one that always makes the schedule.  Our paychecks are direct deposit, so there's no reason to ever see the boss in the store."  Kyle pushed her chair back and grabbed her empty mug.  Walking over to the sink, she ran some water to rinse out the dregs before sitting the cup in the basin and turning back to Steve.  "Was her entire life a lie?"

"The only person that can answer that is YN, but from what I've learned, they've got her in solitary confinement and the only person that can get in to see her is her lawyer."

"Maybe she deserves what she's got coming to her." Kyle leaned back against sink and ran a hand down her face.  "You know what?  No she doesn't.  YN's a good person – she's always made sure that the people that work for her earn a decent wage and get time off when we need it.  And Volt?  If all the businesses she's been hitting up are run by men like Henri Bernard, then they deserve to be taken down.  As for Sydney, I'm not sure, but I'd be willing to bet there's a story there that we don't know and if we ever find out what it is, it'll put all the pieces of this puzzle together."

"I think you're right," Steve agreed.  "Sydney is the missing piece, but YN has gone out of her way to cover her tracks there.  I think Tony knows the whole story, but he's a little angry with me at the moment, so he's not sharing."

"You're joking, right?" Kyle let out a hearty laugh.  "The guy that dubbed her Sparky just to piss her off is now the main guy in her corner?  I always thought that would be you."

"I let my hurt and my anger cloud my judgement," Steve explained.  "Tony was there for her when I refused to be – I'm not surprised that she confided in him."

"And he's not sharing any info with you?"

"Tony blames me for her turning herself in."  He took a deep breath and ran his hand over the back of his neck.  "He's not wrong.  If I had just listened to her – had believed her when she told me that she hadn't been lying to me – then none of this would be happening right now.  We could have figured out a way to make things right with Ross, but now. . ."

"But now you have to let the court decide what happens next."  Kyle walked over and laid a hand on Steve's shoulder.  "Don't be too hard on yourself.  She still might have a chance to walk away from all of this."

 

YN lay in her cell looking up at the ceiling above her head adorned with only a single vent to allow hot and cool air to circulate through the small room.  The ceiling was about ten feet off the ground – too high for anyone to jump up to grab the grate.  Not that it would matter.  The slats were too close together for anyone to get their fingers in between them, and the vent was mounted to the ceiling with four large screws that took a specialized Allen wrench to undo.

_Steve stared at the ceiling above his bed as he lay on his back and wished for sleep to overtake him.  Tony had converted the office-style rooms into suites after he'd joined the Avengers, but if someone was  paying attention, they could still sense the industrialization that surrounded them.  He'd added a few homey touches with the fancy light fixtures and he'd traded out the cheap pockmarked tiles for thermoplastic squares with an intricate relief pattern, but it was impossible to hide the fact that it was still a drop ceiling like every other office building in New York City._

YN counted the number of slats – sixteen.  It had been sixteen the first day they'd brought her here and it had been sixteen every single day since then.  It didn't matter how many slats were in the vent, though – it only mattered because that vent was one of the only things she had to look at as she lay on the small cot in the corner of her cell.

_Steve counted the number of tiles in his room – thirty six.  His room was a perfect square with six tiles along each side.  At two feet per square, he'd calculated that his room was twelve feet by twelve feet or one hundred and forty-four square feet.  It was definitely larger than most prison cells, but to him it was just as claustrophobic._

The cot was bolted to the floor, just like the vent was bolted to the ceiling.  There was a small stainless steel sink which only ran cold water, and a stainless steel toilet in the opposite corner that YN had discovered felt like ice in the middle of the night when she woke up to use the bathroom.  Not that she knew if it was truly nighttime when she slept.  There were no windows in her room, only a small grate at the top of the door that stayed closed most of the time, and a thin slot for the guards to pass her food tray through.  She had come to assume that when the lights were on that it was day and when the lights were off, it was night.  

_He had all the creature comforts he could imagine at his disposal in his room, but nothing interested him anymore.  Once he'd come back from his visit with Kyle, he'd locked himself in his room and began to brood.  He preferred to be alone when he felt like this.  The serum had amplified everything about him, including his emotions.  Right now his grief was about to overtake him.  He'd switched himself over to a nocturnal routine in the hopes that sleeping during the day would trick his brain into keeping the haunting dreams out of his mind.  It hadn't worked so far, but he was still hopeful._

She hated the night.

_He hated the day._

She'd never been one to be scared of the dark, but then again, she'd never experienced darkness quite like this before.  When the lights were out, she could barely see her hand in front of her face.  She'd learned to navigate the small cell by touch when the lights were out, and now she could make it from the bed to the toilet without slamming her hip into the sink by memory.  It was amazing how quickly one could adapt to new surroundings when there was no other choice but to do so.

_He used to love getting up just before dawn and watching the sun rise over the horizon as he ran.  For twenty-four years he'd gone to bed each night wondering if that day would be his last, so he'd cherished every morning that he was able to wake up and enjoy another chance at living.  But not anymore.  Now the daylight reminded him of everything he'd lost.  Seeing the light of day only reminded him of how YN would look first thing in the morning with the early morning rays of sunlight illuminating her face._

She'd thought she would enjoy solitary confinement since she didn't really relish the idea of mingling with the other prisoners in the ward.  It wasn't that she thought she was better than those other women.  She knew she was just as much of a criminal as they were, but she was enhanced.  Being enhanced in a regular prison was akin to painting a target on your back.  It didn't matter what you were in for, if the other inmates knew you were different, they'd all gang up on you.  She assumed that was part of the reason Ross had created the Raft.

_He had another reason for avoiding the daylight – his friends.  He knew they meant well, but a guy could only take so many pitying looks from the people closest to him before he began to go insane.  He knew all of their schedules by heart, so he knew when was the best time to sneak out to gather enough food to get him through another day.  He suspected that his friends knew what he was doing and went out of their way to let him have this one semblance of control in life, but either way, he continued to roam the halls of the tower in the hours just after midnight so that he could be assured of being left alone._

Now that she'd been in jail for a few days, she realized just how horrible it truly was.  She wasn't sure what conditions were like on the Raft – she'd ave Matt ask Tony for her – but if she were going to be stuck in a cell like this for the rest of her life, she was certain that she would lose her mind.

_He'd spent just as much time locked in his room as he had spent secluded in the compound with YN, but the days didn't seem comparable.  When he was with her, time seemed to slip through his fingers like sand, but the hours without her felt like an eternity that would never cease to end.  He couldn't imagine that this would be his life from here on out, but other than breaking her out of the Raft and going on the run from Ross again, he had no idea how to change their circumstances.  All he knew was that he was slowly going out of his mind without her._

She'd hadn't seen Matt at all since that initial meeting.  He'd told her he wouldn't be back until the DA had released their discovery to him and he'd had a chance to look it over and formulate a game plan.  He'd said the DA wanted five days, and if the guards weren't screwing around with the lights, it had already been four and today would make the fifth.  And if today was her fifth day here, then her program had already begun doing its magic.  At least she could take comfort in that.

_The only person that had tried to reach out to him was Bucky.  His oldest friend thought he was acting completely uncharacteristically, but he didn't know – and Steve would never tell him – that he'd felt like this once before.  It had been in 1945 and he'd lost one of the most important people in his life on a mountainside high above the Danube River.  Back then he'd had Peggy to help him through the worst of it, and there had also been a war going on at the time.  As much as he loved his friend, losing Bucky had been different than losing YN.  Although now that he thought about it – it was exactly the same – the only difference was that last time, he hadn't known Bucky was a prisoner but he was all to aware of the fact that YN was.  Was it better to know, or to be left in the dark?  He hadn't figured out the answer to that question yet._

She heard the sound of boots walking down the hallway and knew it was time for her one hour of exercise in the yard by herself.  They'd turned the lights back on about an hour ago as they'd shoved the breakfast tray through the slot.  If anything, they stuck to a schedule, and that brought her a sense of peace.  It wasn't much, but it was all she had to hold onto.

_He heard the sound of someone approaching his door.  He figured it would be Bucky again, so he rolled over and placed the pillow over his head so he could pretend he didn't hear him.  Even with his hearing muffled, he could tell the difference between the knocks.  Bucky always knocked out the rhythm to "Shave and a Haircut," but this was just three short raps on the door.  When Tony started speaking, he'd almost tuned him out, but what he had to say caused Steve to abandon his self-made prison and rejoin the world._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 21 of this story! Steve is desperately trying to figure out the answers that will help him understand YN. Do you think Tony should have told him, or should he wait to hear the whole story from the Reader. . .if they ever get a chance to talk to one another again? What did you think of the parallels between their prisons? What do you think is going to happen next? I look forward to your comments!_


	22. Chapter 22

The guard didn't say a word to YN as he led her down the hallway away from her cell, but that was nothing unusual.  She assumed early on that they had either been told not to speak to her or they were scared of her for some reason.  She preferred to think it was the latter and had vowed to keep her facial expressions in check when she was around them.  She refused to let them see how scared she actually was, or just how much the solitary confinement was starting to effect her mental state.

When the guard didn't take the left corridor that would lead them to the yard, she knew something was up.  Refusing to give in to her desire to ask where they were going, she squared her shoulders and dutifully followed behind him until she recognized the corridor they were in.

Once the door to the private room had shut behind her, she let out a breath and felt her shoulders sag with relief.  Matt was already sitting at the table with a folder in front of him.

"You're probably going to want to sit down for this," he told her once he was sure the door had shut completely and no one else could hear their conversation.

Immediately the tension returned and she felt as though someone had punched her in the gut.  What could be worse than what she was already dealing with?  Following his advice, she pulled out the chair opposite of him and took a seat.

"Don't sugar coat it, just give it to me straight."

He rubbed his temples and took a deep breath.  "The DA knows what you've been up to."

"What do you mean?"

"They know about the algorithm. . ."

"It's too late to stop it," she interrupted.  "Even if they found out about days ago, there's no way they found someone smart enough to bypass my encryption."

"I believe they knew they couldn't stop it, but now they're going to use that program against you."

"There's no way I'm going to get off with a just a slap on the wrist now, am I?"

"I'm still going to argue it," Matt assured her.  "I think if I can get the judge to see what your program does – how it helps the victims – he just might be a little more lenient."

"Why are you just telling me about this now?  Wasn't the trial supposed to start today?"

"The trial is starting today.  I've only got about ten more minutes to talk to you and then they have to start your transfer."

She was already agitated from being locked away by herself for days, and now finding out that her so-called lawyer had waited until the last minute to discuss her trial strategy had her temper flaring.  If it weren't for the dampeners, she was certain that Volt would have already manifested.  "What have you been doing all this time?  I thought you were going to come back and work out a plan or something?"

"The DA just sent their discovery over to me last night," Matt explained as he ran a hand through his hair.  "I've been up all night going through it.  They'd buried their knowledge of the algorithm deep within a meaningless file.  I know they meant to hide it from us because I'm sure they're going to try to blindside us at the trial.  They may have the upper hand on this, but at least we'll be going in prepared for this to come up."

"You worry about that," she told him as she sat back in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest.  "I'm more concerned with finding out how they figured it out."

"I think we both know the answer to that question."

She took a deep breath and let it out in a huff.  "I know what you're thinking, but why would Tony turn my algorithm over to Ross?"

"Leverage?  Power?  I don't know."

"What do you know?"

Matt took a moment.  "I know that you told me there was only one copy of that algorithm and that you'd entrusted it to Stark.  Now the DA miraculously has knowledge of its existence.  It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots."

"Damn it," she said as she dropped her head into her hands.  "Why do I always end up trusting the wrong people?"

"We don't know for sure that his reasons were malicious."

She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest again.  "Give me one good reason why Tony would hand that one crucial piece of evidence over to the DA if he didn't intend for it to be the final nail in my coffin."

"It doesn't look good, I'll give you that, but why would he go to all of the trouble of demanding a trial and hiring me if he didn't want to at least give you a fighting chance?"

She shook her head and gave Matt a wry grin.  "Tony Stark always has an agenda – don't you know that by now?"  She let out a huff and she thought for a moment.  "He's been trying to figure out what I was up to for months now and I went and handed it to him on a silver platter.  He probably wanted some time to try to break through my encryption so he could testify at my trial and make sure I spend the rest of my life on the Raft."

"I don't think it's wise to jump to conclusions just yet," Matt cautioned.  "Perhaps we should wait until the trial to pass final judgment on Stark?"

"At this point, I really don't care what he was up to.  It doesn't matter anyway – I'm heading to the Raft."

"You don't have much faith in me, do you?"

She leaned her elbows on the table and tried to see his eyes behind the red-tinted glasses.  "You could be the best lawyer in the world and it wouldn't matter to Ross."  She took a deep breath and gave him a pleading look.  "Just tell me something – do you know what it's like on the Raft?"

 

Steve opened the door and for a moment Tony didn't recognize him.  "You look like hell.  Get cleaned up – the trial starts in a few hours and we need to get through security at the courthouse."

"Do you even think she'll want me there?"

"If it were me, I'd want Pepper there," Tony answered with a tight-lipped grimace.  "Just to know that I wasn't alone."

"Okay, give me twenty minutes."

Steve shut the door and ran a hand over his chin.  He wasn't sure he was ready to face YN again after everything he'd said to her the last time he'd seen her, but this may be his last chance to ever see her so he knew he had to go.  He just hoped that when she saw him, she understood that he was there as an ally and not her enemy – he couldn't live with himself if he thought she believed he didn't love her.

Taking a deep breath, he headed toward the shower.  The least he could do would be to try to look presentable for her, and for the cameras that were sure to be there recording every second of this dog and pony show.

Once he'd cleaned himself up and picked out a pair of khakis and a long-sleeved blue button-down shirt, he steeled his nerves and went in search of Tony.

The courthouse was overrun with people trying to gain entrance to the courtroom.  Tony must have made arrangements ahead of time because they were met with a guard at a side door and quickly ushered through security and up the three flights of stairs.  Even in the stairwell, Steve could hear the swarms of people clamoring to get through the barriers.

"It's supposed to be a closed-door hearing," the guard informed them.  "Not even the press is allowed in."

"Then how. . .?"

"I had a talk with Ross," Tony explained before Steve could finish.

 

YN hadn't been allowed to go back to her cell after Matt had left.  Secretary Ross had personally come with a small army of armed guards to escort her to the courthouse.  She wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it.  She was a fairly decent fighter, but without her powers, she'd be lucky to take out three or four of them before the others overpowered her.  She guessed that Ross just wanted to put on a show for the public, to remind them that she was public enemy number one.

As they led her up a set of stairs to the roof, she tried to resign herself to the fate that awaited her.  While she would never have to see the inside of the cell she'd occupied for the last five days – with it's single, sixteen-slated vent in the ceiling – she had no idea what her life would be like once she was transferred to the Raft.

She wasn't going to try to delude herself any longer.  She'd let herself almost start to hope that Matt might be able to work a miracle, but now that she'd learned that Tony had sold her out to Ross, there was doubt in her mind that her life as a free woman was over.  She allowed herself a moment of pity before she reminded herself why she'd done it.  After today, hundreds of people would be able to rest assured that their life savings hadn't been swindled away by some con artist that the government would eventually make a deal with and set free with no repercussions.  She'd made a difference in the lives of those people and hopefully, no one would face the same fate her own parents had faced all those years ago.

They loaded her into a waiting helicopter and shackled her wrists and ankles together to a ring on the floorboard.  She shook her head and stayed quiet, resigned to let them do what they needed to do to make themselves feel safe.

The flight to the courthouse was uneventful and blissfully short.  She hadn't been in a helicopter since her "parents" had taken her to Hawaii for her thirteenth birthday.  It had been one of the last happy memories she had of her life before she'd found out the truth about who she was.  Since then, she detested helicopters, and the events of today weren't about to change her feelings toward that particular aircraft.

When they landed on the roof of the courthouse, Ross personally escorted her through the door and down the short flight of stairs to the corridor that would lead them to the courtroom.  He'd been oddly quiet throughout this entire ordeal, and that surprised her for some reason.  She'd have thought he be keen to rub it in her face that she would soon be spending the rest of her life on his specially designed prison far out in the Atlantic.

As they drew closer to the courtroom, YN's anxiety began to kick in.  This was it – the next few hours would determine the outcome of her entire life.  She felt her throat start to close up as her heart began to race.  Not wanting to let anyone see the panic in her eyes, she cast them downward and stared at her feet as Ross led her through the door and toward the defense table.

Matt was already waiting for her – a grim smile on his face.  "Breathe."

YN wasn't surprised that he could sense her panicked state, and was glad to have someone like him in her corner.  She knew it wouldn't help the outcome of the trial, but just knowing that she wasn't the only enhanced person in the room was somehow reassuring.

"You have company," Matt said.

YN made a move to turn around, but the bailiff approached the side of the bench and instructed everyone to rise.  With her attention on the judge entering the courtroom, she immediately forgot about Matt's statement.

The judge began his opening remarks and YN struggled to understand the legalese.  She'd watched Law and Order a few times, but actually being the person on trial gave her a whole new perspective on the proceedings.

"Your honor," the DA interjected before the judge could call for opening statements.  "Permission to approach the bench?"

The judge looked perturbed, but beckoned him forward.  "I'm warning you now, Mr. Vance, I won't put up with showmanship in my courtroom."

Matt leaned over and quickly whispered, "I'll be right back."

Once both Matt and the DA were before the judge, they began arguing quietly.  YN strained to hear what they were saying, but she could only catch snippets of the conversation.  She could tell that the judge wasn't happy with what the DA was saying and Matt looked absolutely furious.  Whatever was going on, it didn't bode well for her.

After a few minutes, the judge shooed both attorneys away and began to shake his head.  Matt quickly walked back to YN and hurriedly began to whisper.

"I'm so sorry, there was nothing I could do."

"What do you mean?  What's going on, Matt?"

Before Matt could answer her, the judge began speaking.  "In light of recent evidence brought forth by Tony Stark against the defendant, the DA has opted to turn over their case to Secretary Ross and his team.  Let the record show that this is in accordance with Article 10, para. 35 of  S/RES/1918(2016), commonly referred to as the Sokovia Accords."

YN felt her heart drop.  Matt wasn't even going to get a chance to plead her case.  She wanted to cry out at the injustice of it all, but a commotion in the back of the courtroom drew everyone's attention.  Turning around she was shocked to see Steve with his hands fisted in Tony's shirt.  YN wasn't sure what was going on, but if she'd had to wager a guess, Steve hadn't know that Tony had been the one to turn over the final evidence against her.

Her fear abated for just a moment as she took in his appearance.  The last time she'd seen him, he'd been wearing a similar look of anger on his face, but it wasn't his expression that had caught her eye.  It was the beard – he'd grown it back since she'd last seen him.  Her heart swelled as she realized that he must have done it for her – to let her know that he'd forgiven her.

"Order," the judge began to yell as he banged his gavel repeatedly.  "There will be order in my courtroom or I will have you all held in contempt."

Steve let go of Tony and threw up his hands to show the bailiffs that he was no longer a threat.  He felt the eyes of the entire courtroom on him, but there was only one person he wanted to see.  When they'd brought her in, her eyes had been downcast and he'd silently pleaded with her to look up, but she was either in shock or just too apathetic to care if anyone had come to support her.  But now, she was looking at him, her eyes brimming with tears.  As Ross' men came to lead her back through the door she'd come through just a few minutes before, she gave him a nod and mouthed the words he so desperately wanted to hear just one more time – I love you.

She could feel the hands on her arms and knew her time was up, but she wasn't ready to go.  She'd just gotten a chance to see him again, and there were so many things she needed to say to him, but the guards were insistent.  She craned her neck to look back over her shoulder so she could see him one last time as they dragged her toward the door behind the judge's bench.  She'd quietly whispered to him that she loved him and she felt a moment's peace when he silently returned the sentiment.  As much as she didn't want to go, she knew that her fate had been sealed the first time she'd used her powers to commit a crime.  If only she hadn't fallen in love.  Life would have been so much simpler, but looking back on it, she wouldn't trade her time with Steve at the compound for anything in the world.  Those few days worth of memories were going to be the only comfort she had for the upcoming years of imprisonment.

As they led her back through the doorway, she could hear Matt arguing with the DA and the judge, but she knew that Ross had tied up any and all loose ends and there was nothing Matt could do.  She wished she'd told him that she didn't blame him before they'd dragged her away, but once she'd seen Steve, he'd been her sole focus.  She just hoped that Matt didn't blame himself.  She didn't need anyone else shouldering blame when it came to her.

Ross and the guards led her back down the hallway they'd come through just a few minutes earlier, and then back up the stairs to the roof.  The process was the same as it had been at the jail – wrists and ankles shackled to the ring on the floorboard of the helicopter – except this time, the guards didn't board the aircraft with her and Ross.  She spared him one skeptical look, but then decided that it didn't matter. 

Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back and tried to find some semblance of peace in the last few minutes of freedom she would ever experience.  She wasn't sure how far out into the Atlantic the Raft was, but she figured they'd be in the air for at least a half hour, if not longer.  She wasn't too concerned with the actual trip, she just didn't want to spend it looking at the man sitting across from her.  She was grateful for the roar of the engine which made it impossible to have a conversation with special headsets equipped with microphones.  Ross had a set, but she assumed it was for him to communicate with the pilot.

YN could feel herself start to drift off as the helicopter began its descent.  She jerked back to awareness, but she refused to open her eyes just yet.  A part of her was terrified to see the prison first-hand, but another part of her was determined not to let Ross see just how scared she really was.

She felt the helicopter touch down and she dropped her head and opened her eyes to stare at her hands resting in her lap.  Ross got up and moved over to her as he began to unlock the shackles.  The rotors began to slow and the sounds around her started to slowly filter in.  She'd been expecting the roar of crashing waves, so when she didn't hear the sea, her curiosity got the better of her.

Finally looking up, she took in her surroundings.  With wide eyes she turned and looked at Ross.  "This isn't the Raft."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 22 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it! So, how angry are you at Tony? Steve didn’t seem too happy with our favorite genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist! Were you surprised that Ross found a way around the trial? Then there was that last longing look across the courtroom. Steve grew out the beard for her again. . .Lord knows I love that man with a beard, so it wasn’t going to stay gone for long! And then we come to the cliffhanger. . .again. . . Where do you think they are? I look forward to your comments!_


	23. Chapter 23

Steve watched in horror as Ross and his armed guards dragged YN out of the courtroom.  His vision was tainted red with anger, but he stifled his rage long enough to show her how he felt about her since it would be impossible to tell her without screaming it across the courtroom.  It wasn't embarrassment that kept him from calling out to her, but rather a sense that the conversation they needed to have with one another should be private and not privy to the ears of their enemies.

When the door had shut behind her, he turned the full force of his rage back onto the man he held personally responsible for the events that had just unfolded.  "What the hell kind of game are you playing at, Tony?"

"It's not what it seems."

Steve pointed toward the door behind the judge's bench as he leaned in closer to the man he'd thought was his friend.  "They just hauled her away to the Raft.  What exactly am I missing?"

Tony looked around the mostly empty room before placing a hand on Steve's arm.  Steve jerked away from him, but Tony wasn't offended.  He knew how this must seem to Steve, and he honestly couldn't blame the man for being angry.

"I'll explain everything, but not here.  You never know who's listening."

Without waiting to see if he would follow, Tony turned and exited the courtroom.  The same man that had led them into the courthouse was waiting for them outside the door.  He scurried to catch up to Tony as he quickly strode from the courtroom toward the stairwell at the opposite end of the hallway.  Steve lagged behind, but only because he needed some distance between him and Tony since he still wasn't positive he could keep himself from beating the shit out of the cocky billionaire again.

When they were back in the car, Steve started to demand that Tony explain himself, but Tony quietly placed a finger to his lips and held up one of his devices.  Steve looked down at the screen and saw a small red blinking dot on the undercarriage of the car.  It took him a moment to comprehend what he was seeing, but when Tony tapped his ear, Steve immediately understood.  The car had been bugged, and there was only one person who stood to gain from overhearing a conversation he wasn't supposed to – Thaddeus Ross.

Steve resigned himself to sit in silence and let his anger stew.  As much as he wanted to rage at Tony for orchestrating whatever stunt he'd just pulled, he knew that refusing to give Ross any more ammunition against YN was more important than his righteousness indignation.  So he sat in the passenger seat with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face as Tony wove the car through the thick uptown traffic back to the Tower.

Tony had been expecting Ross to put some type of listening device on the car while they were in the courthouse, but for once, he'd hoped he would be wrong about the Secretary of State.  Tony couldn't be too angry since it was a move he might have potentially made himself if the situation had been reversed.  Knowing he had the arrogant man bent over a barrel was a satisfying feeling, but Ross wouldn't be keen to stay there too long – especially if he could find some way around the deal they'd made a few days ago.

Once he'd pulled the sleek sports car into the underground garage and exited the car, he threw the keys to Happy.  "There's a slight infestation you'll need to take care of before I drive that one again."

"Sure thing, boss," Happy replied, immediately understanding Tony's cryptic instruction.

"So, are you going to explain yourself now?" Steve asked once they were in the elevator heading to Tony's lab.

"I've got our little team waiting for us upstairs, so why don't we hold off for a second and then I can lay it all out for everyone at the same time."

"Oh, so I'm not the only one in the dark," Steve said with a sigh and a shake of his head.  "We're supposed to be a team, Tony.  We can't work together if you keep going out on your own and making decisions that affect everyone else's lives."

"I did what I thought was best. . ."

"What you thought," Steve interrupted with a sardonic laugh.  "It's always about you, isn't it, Tony?"

Tony hit the emergency stop button and turned on Steve.  "I did what I had to do to keep everyone safe.  If you hadn't acted like an ass a few days ago I might not have had to do any of this.  You want someone to blame?  Go look in a mirror."

Tony turned back and hit the button to start the elevator again.  Steve stood speechless in the corner as he thought about Tony's words.  He was right.  Steve was ultimately the one to blame for everything that had happened in the last few days, and he was currently lashing out at everyone else so he didn't have to face the fact that he'd ruined the best chance at happiness he'd had in over eighty years.

When the doors of the elevator opened, he somberly followed Tony into the lab where Nat, Bucky, and Peter were all waiting for them.

"Where's YN?" Peter asked as his eyes grew wide with worry.  "I thought you said you'd worked everything out with Secretary Ross."

"There was a little snag with that," Tony admitted as he sank onto one of the stools by his workbench and leaned his elbows on the workbench as he buried his face in his hands.  "I played the hand I had, but Ross had a few aces up his sleeve I couldn't beat."

"You asked us to wait until today for an explanation," Bucky reminded him.  "We deserve to know the truth, Stark."

"I agree," Tony said as he swiveled the stool around to face them.  "Pull up a seat.  This could take a while."

The three men grabbed stools, but Nat chose to sit on the workbench opposite Tony as he began to talk.  None of them listened quietly as they almost seemed to take turns berating the billionaire for his seemingly foolhardy plan.  Steve ended up pacing the room before Tony was even halfway through with his story.  Nat softly cursed him in Russian while Bucky hurled profanities at him in English, but at a much higher volume.  

Peter sat off to the side looking guilty for his role in the whole ordeal.  He'd known that Tony had planned to turn over YN's algorithm to Ross, but he'd been too scared to ask him why.  After hearing what had happened in the courtroom, he couldn't help but feel like he was somehow to blame for the way things had turned out.

"So, you made this unilateral decision," Steve surmised once Tony had finished speaking.  "Now what?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Tony admitted with a dejected breath.  "I'm waiting to hear from Ross."

"And what if he screws us over?" Nat asked in frustration.  "What are you going to do to fix this mess if Ross does exactly what he always does and sacrifices YN to further his own agenda?"

"Then I'll do what I do best," Tony countered with a hard look toward Nat.  "I'll hold a press conference and out him to the world."

"Bad press?" Steve asked with a huff.  "YN may spend the rest of her life on the Raft and all you have in your arsenal is the threat of low approval ratings?"

"Give me more credit than that," Tony said with an incredulous look on his face.  He started to say more, but his phone chirped with an incoming text.  "Hold that thought.  Ross just texted.  We've got coordinates."

"What are we waiting for?" Steve asked as he grabbed Tony's phone out of his hand and turned toward the elevator.  He didn't wait to see who was following him.  He finally knew where YN was and there wasn't anyone or anything that would stand in the way of him getting to her.

When he jogged up the ramp of the Quinjet, he was surprised to see that it was only Tony that had come with him.  He buckled himself into the pilot's seat and waited for Tony to do the same before instructing FRIDAY to set a course for the coordinates on Tony's phone.

"I need to explain everything to her," Tony told him once they were in the air.  "I owe her that much."

"We both have a lot of explaining to do," Steve agreed.  "Neither one of us deserves her forgiveness. . ."

"But we're both hoping she's a better person than either of us," Tony finished for him.

"Something like that."

"She loves you, you know."

Steve thought back to the moment in the courtroom when she'd whispered those very words to him across the room.  With his enhanced senses, he'd been able to just barely make out the words, but he hadn't been able to say them aloud to her.  There was no doubt in his mind that what they'd shared at the Compound was real and that if they got the opportunity, they had a real chance of making a relationship work.

"I know," he finally said.  "I know."

Steve kept his eye on the map as FRIDAY guided the Quinjet to a destination neither of them were familiar with.  Tony had looked it up, but upon finding out where they were going, they were both even more confused.

 

Ross offered YN a hand to help her down from the helicopter.  Stubbornly, she refused his help and jumped down on her own.  The scene before her was like something out of a fairy tale.  She had no idea where they were, but it was one of the most beautiful places she'd ever seen.

The helicopter had landed in a small clearing surrounded by thick woods on all sides.  Toward one end of the clearing was a small stone cottage with a thatched roof and a chimney along one side.  There were cheery flowers planted along the front of the house and more in the window boxes that danced in the warm breeze.

"What is this?" she asked as she turned back to Ross with a questioning look on her face.

"This is your new home," he explained as he started walking toward the cottage.  "At least for a little while."

She didn't want to spend another moment in his company, but she knew that if she wanted answers, she'd have to give in and follow him toward the cottage.  Begrudgingly, she let out a deep breath and began walking.

The interior of the cottage was just as charming as the exterior.  The hardwood floors that spread throughout the large open kitchen, living, and dining room gleamed in the sunlight shining through the spotless windows.  The furnishings were exactly what one would expect to be in a quaint country cottage in the woods – large plush area rugs, deep padded chairs around the fireplace to the left of the main entrance, and a rough-hewn table and chairs to the right.  The kitchen was set off to the right and separated from the dining room by a moderately sized island with two stools on the dining room side.  Behind the living room, there were two doors along the wall which she assumed led to the bathroom and bedroom.

"I don't understand."

"Come and sit," Ross said as he motioned for her to take one of the stools at the island.

She hesitated for a moment, but when she saw him go to the stove and turn on the burner beneath a tea kettle she relented and did as he'd asked.  She watched in amazement as he puttered around the kitchen and she immediately got the sense that this wasn't the first time he'd ever been in this house.

As he got down a set of tea cups and opened a cupboard to retrieve a box of tea, he began to explain.  "Stark came to me a few days ago."

"I know," she interrupted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No you don't," he said with a knowing smile.

"I'm listening."

"Then stop interrupting."

She let out a huff, but made a show of closing her mouth and fixing a venomous smile on her face.  He waited to see if she'd say anything else before he continued.

"As I was saying, Stark came to me a few days ago with a preposterous story.  Except it wasn't so preposterous once he showed me the evidence of what you'd been doing.  I knew the Carnifex group had been under investigation by the FBI, and after Bernard's illegal dealings were uncovered after the attack on you, I began to have my suspicions.  Stark confirmed what I'd been fearing all along – you weren't just a criminal, you were a vigilante."

"So?" she asked, unable to hold her tongue any longer.  "Vigilantism is still illegal under the Accords."

"Which is why everyone thinks you're on the Raft right now," he shot back at her with a pointed look.

She narrowed her eyes and studied him.  "Tony has something on you, doesn't he?"

"Not exactly," Ross hedged as the tea kettle began to whistle.  He turned off the flame and poured some of the boiling water into each cup before handing one to her.  He stayed by the stove and leaned back against the counter as he continued to explain.  "I was in the Army with Alexander Jackson, so I think you can understand how shocked I was to find out that he was scamming the people who'd entrusted him with their life savings."

"Wait a second," she said as she held up a hand.  "You were a client of Jackson, Cooper & Tomlinson?"  She paused for a moment and laughed before settling into her seat and taking a sip of her tea.  "This is all making sense to me now.  Let me guess, Tony only told you about my algorithm because he found out you were one of the thousands of people who stood to lose everything if I hadn't created that program."

"Something like that."

She nodded her head as most of the pieces began to fall into place.  There was just one thing that didn't make sense.  "Okay, tell me this.  Why go through the motions of the trial?  Why not just drop the whole thing and give me a key to the city?"

"God, you're a cocky little bitch aren't you?"

"Excuse me, Mr. Secretary," she said with a roll of her eyes.  "I saved your ass, and probably some of your friends as well.  Am I right?  You referred some of your high-powered associates to that shady investment firm, didn't you?  I bet Jackson was beside himself with joy when you kept bringing him bigger and bigger marks for him to con."

"Can't you just be grateful that you're not rotting on the Raft right now?"

"And pass up the opportunity to rub it in your face that you owe me?  Never."

"You're just like Stark, do you know that?"

"A few weeks ago that would've been an insult, but now I'm going to take that as a compliment.  I bet he threatened to out you to the world if you didn't renege on your threat to send me to the Raft."  She waited to see what he would say, but when he didn't meet her eye she realized that she hadn't quite hit the mark.  Putting herself in Tony's shoes, she tried to figure out how he'd managed to manipulate one of the world's most powerful men so effectively.  "Wait a second.  He threatened to implicate you in the scam, didn't he?"

"That son of a bitch is going to get what's coming to him one of these days," Ross snarled as he threw out his cup of tea and slammed the cup down on the counter.  "You'll stay here for a year while the public thinks you're on the Raft.  Then you'll sign the amended Accords and join that band of misfits the world seems to love so much.  But I swear, if you step one toe out of line, I will have you locked up in solitary confinement in that undersea prison for the rest of your life."

He started for the door, and YN almost let him leave before it hit her that she was all alone in the middle of nowhere.  "Wait."

He turned around and glared at her.  "What?"

"You're just leaving me here?"

He spread his arms to encompass the entire cottage.  "You have everything you need to live comfortably for the next year.  What else do you want?"

"Um, how about the directions to the nearest grocery store.  You do realize that I'll need to eat while I'm sequestered out here."

"Stark will have that covered," Ross told her.  "Don't break anything while you're here, or I'll take it out of your ass."

She let him get halfway to the helicopter before she called out once more.  "This is your place, isn't it?"

He didn't bother to turn around as he answered her.  She wasn't sure if she heard him correctly, but it almost sounded like he'd said it had been his wife's.  Turning back to look at her new home, she saw it from a different perspective.  This wasn't someone's romantic retreat.  It was a memorial to a woman that was dearly missed.  A part of her wanted to change her opinion of Ross, but one redeeming quality didn't outweigh all the bad ones, so she vowed to keep her snarky comments to a minimum around him from now on to show her appreciation.

She stood in the doorway of the cottage and watched as the helicopter rose out of the clearing and disappeared over the trees.  The sun was warm upon her face and she took a moment to relish in the peaceful serenity that she'd suddenly found herself in.  This was not where she thought she'd end up this morning, and she knew that it was only through a stroke of luck that she'd escaped a lifetime of imprisonment.

 

They'd been flying over a thick forest of trees for the past few minutes with no signs of civilization for miles around them and Steve was staring to get worried that Ross had sent them on a wild goose chase.  It wasn't until the Quinjet began descending into a small clearing that he finally allowed himself to believe that Tony might have made the right choice in blackmailing Ross.

Too impatient to wait for the jet to land, Steve unbuckled himself and made his way to the cargo hold.  Hitting the release, the cargo doors began to open.  When Tony realized what he was about to do, he called out to stop him, but Steve had already jumped from the Quinjet.  

It wasn't a long drop from the jet to the ground, but he was used to his combat boots cushioning his fall and the loafers he was currently wearing didn't quite measure up to the task.  He'd landed in a crouch, but had immediately sprung up and moved out of the way of the rapidly descending plane.  His eyes were focused on the small cottage across the clearing and the woman who was currently standing in the doorway waiting for him

He stopped a few yards shy of the front door and waited to see what her reaction would be.  It had only been a few hours ago that she'd told him she'd loved him as she'd been dragged from the courtroom, but he was still unsure of where they stood with one another.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi."

"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all of this.  It's real, isn't it?"

He closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms.  Burying his face in the crook of her neck he whispered against her skin.  "It's real."

"Hate to break up the happy reunion," Tony said once he'd made his way from the jet to the cottage.

"You son of a bitch," YN swore at him, but her voice held no malice.  "You couldn't have given me a heads up?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders as she and Steve broke apart to face him.  "It needed to look real."

"For who, Tony?" Steve asked.  "There was no press allowed in the courtroom."

"That doesn't mean the events that took place there won't be reported," Tony explained.  "Plus, it was one of Ross' conditions."

"You took a huge risk going to him," YN said as she shook her head.  "You should've consulted me about that."

"I didn't want you implicated in the blackmail," Tony said.  "I don't care if he's got it out for me, but now he knows he owes you, so he'll be more likely to leave you alone in the future."  He paused and looked at her hopefully.  "You forgive me, Sparky?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.  "I was going to, but then you had to go and call me Sparky."

Tony grinned and held out his hand.  "How about I take off that dampener and then we can call a truce."

She willingly held out her wrist for him to enter the release code.  "I'll do anything to get this damned thing off."

Once he'd taken off the device, she began rubbing her wrist with her other hand.  The dampener hadn't hurt, but it was still a relief to know that it wasn't there any longer.

Tony gave them a salute as he took a step back from them.  "So, now that we're good, I'm going to take off.  You two take a few days to kiss and make up.  M'kay?"

"Wait, what?" Steve asked, his brow furrowing into his signature look of consternation.

"You heard me," Tony said with a wink.  "YN's stuck up here for the next year, but you're free to come and go whenever you please.  Someone has to bring her groceries every few days."

With a smile and a wink, Tony tapped the triangular device on his chest and his new nano-tech suit began to slowly envelop his entire body.  When the faceplate closed into place, he wiggled his fingers at them and ascended into the sky.

"I'll never get used to that new suit," Steve remarked as he watched his friend fly off into the distance.  Turning back to YN, he suddenly felt a wave of nervousness.  "So. . ."

"So. . ." she repeated as she shrugged her shoulders.  "What now?"

"Well, first I need to apologize."

She reached up and scratched her fingers lightly through his beard.  "I though that's why you grew this out again."

"It is," he said with a shy smile.  "I wasn't sure I would get to talk to you again and I figured that if you saw the beard, you'd know that I'd finally realized how badly I'd screwed up."

"We both screwed up, Steve," she admitted.  "If I had just told you the truth the night my memories came back, we could have avoided all of this drama."

"Why don't we just agree to never keep anything that important from one another again?"

She shook her head and smiled at him.  "I can handle that."

He raised a hand and lightly brushed his knuckles down the side of her face.  "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."  He watched her smile falter a bit and he knew he'd already screwed up again.  "The blue is starting to grow on me, you know."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.  Out of all the things he could've said, those were the last words she ever thought she'd hear coming out of his mouth.  "Is that so?"

"I have a fondness for blue," he teased.  "I asked Fury if I could keep that all-blue Stealth suit I wore a few years back with the Strike Team, but he insisted that the public likes a little red thrown in to remind them that I'm America's golden boy."

"I liked that suit as well," she said with a flirty wink.  "It brought out your eyes."

"Speaking of eyes. . ." he began.

She waited for him to continue, but when he remained silent she began to prod.  "Is there something you'd like to ask me?"

"Do you think. . .I mean, only if you want to. . .it's just that. . .I was just wondering. . ."

She began to laugh.  "And here's the Boy Scout again.  What happened to the cocky, self-assured guy I met a few days ago?"

He dropped his head as a smile spread across his face.  "Okay, okay.  Point taken."  He looked back up at her and let out a deep breath.  "I'd like to see Volt."

She knew he'd been hinting at that particular request, and she was almost sure she knew why, but it didn't make it any easier on her.  "Are you sure?"

"She's a part of you, and you're a part of her," he reasoned.  "I can't exactly love one of you without loving the other, now can I?"

"Does that mean I have to love the Captain as much as I love you?"

"No," he said as he leaned in and placed a tentative kiss on her lips.  "I'd prefer it if you loved me more."

She wanted to lose herself in his embrace, but she knew that they needed to get everything out in the open before they resumed that part of their relationship. Reluctantly pulling away, she took a step back from him.  Taking a deep breath, she allowed the dormant electricity within her to rise to the surface.  She'd missed this feeling and she knew as long as she lived, she'd always enjoy the sensation of letting her powers have free reign.  Knowing that she needed to be careful around him, she kept a firm hold on her alter ego and only allowed Volt to manifest visually.

Steve reached out a hand to touch her skin where it had taken on a bluish tinge, but he stopped short for a moment.  She saw his hesitation and reached out to take his hand.  He'd been worried that she would shock him like she had back at the Compound, but apparently now that she was in full control of her powers, she could touch him without causing him pain.

"You look different without a smirk on your face," he commented as he cupped her face in his hand.

"I could say the same about you, but I kinda like the smirk."

"Is that right?"

His eyes were glued to hers and it delighted her to see the haze of desire settle into his while he stared at her electric blue eyes.  She hadn't been sure he could ever accept this part of her, but seeing the way he was looking at her now erased all of her doubts.  Leaning in slowly, she lightly brushed her lips against his.  When he was sure that she wouldn't shock him, he deepened the kiss as his arms wrapped tightly around her.  Reveling in the feel of being in his arms again, she allowed the full force of her desire to overtake her as her fingers buried themselves in his shaggy dark blond hair.

Both of them poured every ounce of their love into that kiss as they tried to convey their feelings through touch alone.  As their tongues mated and mingled, their hands roamed over one another's body.  They were desperate for one another and they were both thrilled that the passion between them hadn't waned in the aftermath of their individual betrayals.  If anything, their time apart had drawn them closer together, and the fear of being separated again would ensure that they would fight anyone and anything that dared to try to tear them apart again.

Steve wanted nothing more than to pick her up and carry her back to whatever flat surface he found first, but there were still questions he needed answers to.  With a sigh, he pulled away from her and waited for her eyes to open and meet his again.  When they finally did, he was shocked to see that they had returned to their normal color.

"Where did Volt go?"

YN shrugged.  "She's not the passionate one.  I've trained myself to keep her at bay while I'm engaging in certain extracurricular activities.  A dead lover is kinda hard to explain to the cops."

He let out a bark of laughter.  "Were there any casualties from your teenage years I need to know about?"

"A few singed eyebrows, but nothing too serious," she teased.  

He motioned for her to head back into the cottage as he followed behind her.  Taking her hand, he led her to the oversized sofa in the middle of the room.  He sat down first and stretched his legs out so she could lay next to him with her head on his chest.

"So, I think I understand Volt a little better since all this happened, and I feel as though YN is the woman I spent the majority of the time with at the Compound. . ."

"But Sydney Cartwright is still a mystery to you," she finished for him as she buried her head into the crook of his shoulder.

"I even went to visit Kyle to see if she had any insight into that part of your life."

"I kept the truth from Kyle so that she wouldn't be in any danger if I was ever caught," she explained.  "I guess I'll need to reach out to her in about a year and hope that she can find it in her heart to forgive me."

"I think she will," Steve said as he placed a kiss to her forehead.  "She seemed pretty understanding when I spoke to her."

"That's good to know," she said before taking a deep breath.  "So, I guess I'd better start at the beginning."

"The beginning is always a good place to start," Steve agreed as he let himself relax and began to listen to the woman he loved tell him the story of who she really was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 23 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it!  I know one of my loyal readers guessed that Ross had been a victim of one of the fraudulent investment firms, but did anyone else suspect? I love that Tony blackmailed that SOB into letting YN off the hook, even if she has to spend an entire year in a quaint little cottage in the woods while her lover boy comes to visit her whenever he can. . .just think of all the time she'll have to read! I had fully intended to add a short Epilogue to the end of the this part because I'd thought it was going to be super short. Turns out I had a lot more to say than I'd originally thought, so there will be an Epilogue next week! I truly hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it! I look forward to your comments!_


	24. Epilogue

Today wasn't a day of firsts, but a day of lasts.

Today was the last day she'd wake up to the rays of sunlight filtering in through the tiny window in her bedroom. Today was the last day she'd ever have to spend waiting for someone to come visit her so she didn't go stir-crazy. Today was the last day she'd putter around in the quaint little cottage where she'd spent the past year of her so-called house arrest. Today was the last day she'd ever have to hide from the world.

She'd awoken to the sound of the birds in the trees outside her window and a smile had immediately spread across her face. Steve would be here soon to get her, and she couldn't wait. She'd packed her meager belongings in the small suitcase Nat had brought her a few weeks ago – the same suitcase she'd bought for her when she'd lost her memories and gone to the Compound with Steve. That little suitcase held more sentimental value than it should have, but for her it signified the beginning of a new chapter in her life. It had gone with her when she'd discovered a love she hadn't been looking for, and now it was going with her to the new life she was about to embark upon with that same love.

Although she hadn't seen or heard from Secretary Ross since the day he'd dropped her off at his wife's cabin, she still felt grateful for his generosity and vowed to leave her temporary home-away-from-home in the same pristine condition she'd found it a year ago. She'd spent the past few days cleaning every nook and cranny to make sure he knew just how much she'd appreciated spending her year of incarceration in a plush and homey environment instead of on the Raft.

Making one last trip through the tiny space to check for any wayward item she might have forgotten, she finally let out a sigh of relief. This was it. She was about to go back to New York, but it wouldn't be the same life she'd been living before. Once she returned to civilization, she'd become an Avenger.

A wave of uneasiness washed over her. It wasn't her new teammates that worried her. On the contrary, they'd all taken turns coming out to visit her, either in pairs or by themselves. Steve had obviously visited the most, followed closely by Tony. She was still amazed that she and Tony had grown to be as close as they had over the past fifty-two weeks. The others were kind, and while she'd enjoyed their company, she was anxious to be in the same city as the man she loved so that they could finally begin the life together that they'd spent countless nights talking about.

Steve had been on a mission for the past week, but Tony had assured her when she'd spoken to him the day before that Steve was on his way back and as soon as he'd filed his mission report this morning he'd be by to get her. Secretary Ross had been called out of the country to deal with something at the UN, so Steve was debriefing with Everett Ross via hologram. YN was secretly glad that he was dealing with the nicer of the two Ross', since she was sure Secretary Ross would find some reason to delay Steve's departure for the cottage just to be spiteful.

She heard the sound of the Quinjet descending into the clearing, and rushed out of the cottage with her suitcase in hand. Pulling the door shut behind her, she ran across the meadow and into the waiting arms of Steve. 

"I missed you," she said as she buried her face into the crook of his neck.

"I missed you, too."

She leaned back and ran her fingers through the thick beard along his jaw. "When did you regrow this?"

"I've been on a mission for the last week," he reminded her. "No time to shave."

"What a shame," she teased. The public had thrown a fit over his beard a year ago, and under pressure from just about everyone, he'd shaved it off. He had a tendency to grow it back whenever he could, and she was glad that today was one of the days she got to see him looking a little scruffy and rough around the edges.

"So," he began as he leaned in and brushed his lips across hers. "There's been a slight change of plans."

Her face fell instantly. "Oh, no. Please don't tell me Ross backed out on our deal."

He quickly began shaking his head. "No, no. Nothing like that. This is actually a good thing."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well?" she asked when he refused to elaborate.

"Well, since Secretary Ross is being held up at the UN dealing with urgent business, we had to postpone the press conference announcing your release for a week."

"Okay," she said with a frown, not seeing how that was a good thing. "Am I going to have to stay here, or hide out in New York somewhere?"

"I've got a better option than either of those," he told her with a wink. "Tony has graciously extended us the use of his house in the Caymans for the next week."

"You're kidding."

"Nope," Steve said with a sultry grin. "Whaddya say? Spend a week in the tropics with me?"

She closed her eyes and scrunched up her nose. "You know, I was really looking forward to donning my new suit and heading straight into the fray, but if you insist. . ."

He threw his head back and began laughing. "Life with you is never going to get dull, is it?"

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

He reluctantly pulled away from her and grabbed her suitcase with one hand while he interlaced his fingers of the other with hers before leading her up the cargo ramp into the jet. He couldn't help but remember the last time they'd been in this plane, and he felt a momentary pang of regret. Somehow sensing where his thoughts had gone, she squeezed his hand and gave him a smile before settling into the co-pilot's seat.

As he flew them south toward their vacation getaway, he filled her in on the mission he'd just come off of. She was always curious about what kinds of missions he went on, and he figured that she was trying to get an idea of what her role on the team would be once she officially became a member. While her abilities were a definitely plus, Tony had expressed an interest in getting her and Peter together to write programs to help them take down HYDRA cybernetically, instead of physically, since the evil organization was true to their mascot and continued to multiply after every successful mission.

By the time Steve descended onto the landing pad by Tony's mansion on the private island, the sun was beginning to dip toward the horizon. He'd gotten a text from the billionaire a few minutes earlier letting him know that everything was in place and ready for him and YN, and now that they were finally at their destination, he was starting to get worried.

YN was in awe at the lavish villa that Tony had set up for the exclusive use of the team in their downtime. After they'd patched things up following the events in Siberia, the entire team had spent a few weeks rebuilding their trust while Secretary Ross worked on getting the amendments Tony had proposed passed with the UN. It had been wonderful to reconnect with his friends, and Steve had been anxious to return to the island ever since. That's why it seemed like the perfect place for him and YN to begin the next phase of their life together.

Steve held open the door so she could walk in ahead of him. Just as he and Tony had planned, the entire great room was alit with dozens of candles. There was soft romantic music playing on the multitude of speakers hidden throughout the room, and ruby red rose petals littered the pristine white marble floors.

YN took one look around the room and slowly turned around to face Steve. When she saw him down on one knee, her hand flew to her mouth to stifle her gasp of surprise. She'd always hoped that he would want to marry her someday, and they'd even hinted at the possibility a few times when he'd visited the cottage, but she hadn't expected him to pop the question the day she'd finally been freed from her forced isolation from the world.

"Will you marry me?" he asked as he pulled out the blue diamond solitaire he'd had hidden in the front pocket of his shirt. 

She cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "That's it? 'Will you marry me?'"

"What?" Steve asked as a look of worry fell over his features.

"I don't get some elaborate speech about how much you love me and you can't stand the thought of living another day without me? You're not going to tell me that I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you?"

A wicked smile played over his handsome face as he stood back up. "Oh, so that's how it's going to be? I go to all this trouble to turn this place into a scene straight out of a movie, and you're going to criticize my delivery?"

"Let me see the ring," she demanded as she held out a hand. She was having a hard time keeping the smile off of her face, but she wasn't about to let him get off too easily. Like most every other woman, she'd dreamt of what her marriage proposal would be like, and while the atmosphere was spot on, she couldn't help but be a little disappointed that he hadn't prepared a heartwarming speech to accompany it.

He placed the ring in her hand and she began to tilt it back and forth to catch the light from the candles. "It's nice. Dark blue diamonds like this are fairly rare, so you get points for that."

"You're scoring me on my proposal?"

"This is the single most important decision of my life," she informed him with a huff. "I've got to make sure I'm making the right call."

"You know," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. "I had this huge sappy speech planned out, but I thought you'd balk at the idea of me getting too emotional."

"Steven Grant Rogers, you are an idiot. Every woman wants the sappy speech, even if she says she doesn't." She handed the ring back to him. "Let me hear it and then I'll decide whether or not I'm going to say yes."

"I love you."

She leaned in and gave him a kiss. "I know you do, now start talking and make it good."

He took a deep breath and looked straight into her eyes. "YN YLN, you are the single most infuriating woman I've ever met. . ."

"This is getting off to a great start," she interrupted with a roll of her eyes. When he gave her a chiding look, she shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, please continue."

"As I was saying, you drive me crazy. You spent months ignoring me, and even went so far as to flirt with my best friend right in front of me."

"Can you blame me?" she asked with a wink. "Bucky is gorgeous, but don't tell Nat I said that or she'll kill me."

"Are you going to let me finish?" he asked as he began to tickle her sides.

Unable to suppress her giggle, she squirmed in his arms as she begged him to stop. "Mercy, mercy."

"This is why I love you, you know? You always make me laugh, even when I want to be angry with you." He took a deep breath and tried to figure out where he'd left off. "Anyway, back to my sappy speech. Losing your memories was the best thing that ever happened to either of us. That week we spent together in the Compound was one of the best times in my life, and we both know if you hadn't gotten amnesia, we probably wouldn't be here today." He paused as he broke eye contact with her. "The way I behaved after I found out the truth is one of my biggest regrets."

She placed a finger under his chin and forced him to look at her again. "We've been over this, Steve. You and I were both to blame for that, and I refuse to keep beating myself up over it. You shouldn't either."

"This is why I don't deserve you," he told her with a sad smile. "You have literally seen the worst side of me and you somehow still manage to find it within yourself to not only forgive me for being an asshole, but for forgetting that it ever happened."

"I almost killed you once," she reminded him. "If you can forgive that, I can forgive a little temper tantrum."

Steve threw his head back and began to laugh. "Dear God, we're quite the pair, aren't we?"

"To be honest with you, I think we're stuck with one another because I don't think anyone else could deal with either of us."

He raised an eyebrow and nodded his head in agreement. "You're not wrong."

"Okay, okay," she said as she rotated her hand in quick circles to get him to move along. "Back to the part where you adore me and you love me more than Bucky."

He let out a snort of laughter and rolled his eyes again. "I want to marry you, YN. I want to spend the rest of my life with you because you understand me better than anyone else in the world – even Bucky. I like to think that I understand you as well, and the more I learn about you, the more I fall in love with you. You aren't afraid to take a risk in order to do the right thing, even when you know you might not succeed. I can't guarantee that a life with me will be easy, but I can guarantee that I will love you every single day of my life and I will do whatever is necessary to keep you safe and happy for as long as you'll have me. When I came out of the ice ten years ago, I couldn't understand why God had seen fit to keep me alive all those years, but then I met you and I realized my life wasn't meant to end dive bombing a plane into the Arctic – my life had yet to even begin. You are my light and my love, and I don't want to spend another day without you by my side. I would be honored if you'd agree to be my wife."

YN looked up at the ceiling and blinked her eyes a few times to keep the tears from falling down her face. When she was sure she had her emotions under control, she met his gaze again. 

"Yes, I'll marry you Steve. There's nothing else in the world I want more than to be your partner – both at home and in the field."

He lifted her left hand off of his chest where it had been resting, and slipped the ring onto her third finger as he leaned in and kissed her.

As she wrapped her arms around his neck and began to lose herself in the kiss, she had one final thought – this day had turned out to be a day of firsts after all.

 

"Who designs these torture devices?" YN asked as she squirmed around in her new suit. 

"It'll break in and then you'll love it," Nat said with a smile. "Trust me."

"You promise? 'Cause I'm really missing my catsuit right about now."

"That cheap thing wasn't bulletproof," Tony reminded her as he walked toward her with a smile. "You have to remember that you're one of the good guys now. Bad guys like to shoot at the good guys."

"You guys shot at me when I was a bad guy," YN pointed out with a chiding look.

"We didn't aim to kill, sweetheart," Steve added as he joined the group of superheroes in the hallway outside the room Tony used for press conferences.

"Good point," YN conceded as she leaned in and gave her fiancé a kiss. "Who's idea was it to make it blue, though? I already have enough blue. . ."

"I have a fondness for blue," Steve reminded her with a soft smile.

"Oh," she said as a warm fuzzy feeling spread throughout her. "In that case, it's perfect."

Bucky walked up and clapped Steve on the back. "You know I'm deliriously happy for you pal, but do you two have to act like lovesick teenagers all of the time?"

Steve gave Bucky a sympathetic look. "You're just jealous because YN said yes, and Natasha still refuses to acknowledge that the two of you are even a couple."

"Marriage is an archaic. . ." Nat began before she was interrupted.

". . .form of slavery that forces women into a state of submission that is completely contradictory to their natural state," the rest of the group finished for her, earning them all a look that would make most men piss themselves in fear.

"I still adore you, doll," Bucky assured Nat as he leaned in and placed a kiss to her temple.

"I'm not your doll, James."

"Sure you are, Natalia," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her. "You're my little Russian nesting doll."

YN leaned over and nudged Steve in his side. "And he fusses at us for being too cutesy with one another."

"You do realize that those are two of the deadliest assassins in the world," Steve reminded her. "I'd be careful if I were you."

YN's eyes took on a blue tinge. "I'm not scared of them."

"Have I told you how much I love you?"

"Only about fifty times today," she said with a shrug. "You're slacking, my dear Captain."

"Okay, is everyone here?" Pepper asked as she slid out of the room filled with reporters and looked around. "Where's Peter?"

"Academic Decathlon tournament or something like that," Tony said with a roll of his eyes. "I told him I'd write him a note, but he felt guilty for missing the one in D.C. last year."

"Okay then," Pepper said as she looked down at the tablet in her hand. "It'll just have to be the five of you. . ." She trailed off for a moment before adding with a grimace, "and Secretary Ross."

"Why does he have to be here again?" Bucky asked with a scowl. 

"Because I made it a stipulation in our agreement that he be the one to welcome Sparky to the team with arms wide open," Tony reminded them with a wink at YN.

"I swear to God, Stark. . ."

Tony held up three fingers to signify the Boy Scout salute. "Last time, I swear."

YN gave Tony a dirty look as she let her eyes turn blue again. 

Pepper looked down at the expensive silver watch on her wrist. "It's almost time. Secretary Ross is going to open the press conference and introduce Volt." She shifted her attention to Tony. "Tony, you're going to say a few words about how she'll be integrated into the team, and field a few questions." She looked back down at the tablet in her hands before glancing back up to meet YN's gaze. "Then it's all you, YN. You've got the speech I prepared for you?"

YN held up the note cards that Tony had brought to her the previous night. "Yep. I've been practicing all day."

"Great," Pepper said as looked at her watch again. "You sure you want to take questions at the end?"

"Absolutely," YN said as she nodded her head. "I want to get everything out in the open today so there'll be no more questions concerning my loyalties from here on out."

Steve laid a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "They're going to love you."

"How could they not?" Nat asked with a sly grin. "After the report leaked detailing Volt's algorithm and the millions of dollars she drained from the offshore bank accounts, she instantly became America's golden girl."

"Please don't mention that in front of Secretary Ross," Pepper pleaded.

"They traced that leak back to an library computer in Pennsylvania," Tony reminded her with a shrug.

"In a city Peter just happened to be in for school field trip," Pepper said with a shake of her head. "Secretary Ross may be a thorn in our sides, but he's not an idiot."

"Remind me to thank Peter for doing that," YN said. "Seeing the way the public rallied behind me and demanded that the government release me from the Raft was amazing."

Tony grinned in satisfaction. "Just wanted to make sure Ross had good reason to keep his end of the bargain. I put him on hold and watched the light blink for a good thirty minutes when he called me to raise hell over that little stunt."

YN looked over at Steve. "What I am getting myself into? You and your friends are reckless and dangerous."

He leaned down and gave her a kiss. "You'll fit right in."

Pepper opened the door to the large room filled to the brim with reporters from every major news outlet. YN quickly pulled away from Steve, giving him a sad smile as she did so. The whole team knew that they were engaged, but since she was supposed to have been on the Raft for the last year, they'd decided to keep their relationship a secret from the public for a few months.

Secretary Ross was already at the podium addressing the crowd before him. "Thank you all for coming here today. I'm sure some of you might have already guessed why Tony Stark and I called this press conference, but for those of you who might now know, I'm here to announce the newest member of the Avengers Initiative."

Secretary Ross stopped speaking and extended his hand toward YN as she walked onto the raised dais with the rest of the team. She glanced out at the swarm of people and gave them a tentative smile and a wave.

"I'm pleased to present you with our newest superhero, Volt." Ross took a step back and began clapping as the audience before him began to applaud with him.

Tony stepped forward and pulled Ross into a hug so he could whisper in his ear. "I'm surprised you didn't choke on those words."

Ross looked down at Tony, and although his face still held a placid smile, his eyes were venomous. "Keep her on a tight leash, or you'll be the one choking."

Tony clapped Ross on the back one last time before turning to the podium to address the reporters. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome. I'm well aware that all of you now know the story behind the woman standing next to me today since most of you wrote some type of article about her once her story leaked to the press a few months ago." Tony paused to glance over in YN's direction and motioned for her to join him. "YN is an exceptional woman. She has an IQ that rivals my own, and a sense of recklessness that makes me look like a choir boy." 

The audience began laughing, so Tony gave them a minute to quiet back down before he finished his speech. "She's paid her debt to society for the laws that she broke, but in light of the good she had done for countless men and women in the great state of New York, we've decided the best course of action would be to utilize her unique skill set and put her to work saving mankind instead.

"With that being said, it's my pleasure to welcome Volt as the newest member of our team." He took a step back and led the room in a round of applause before stepping back up to the mic. "Any questions for me?"

The room erupted in a cacophony of voices all vying to be the one heard above all the others. Tony pointed to a few reporters he knew he could trust to ask pertinent questions that wouldn't derail the entire press conference. Most of the questions centered around Tony's choice to address her by the name she preferred instead of Sparky. 

YN started to feel nervous as the time grew closer for her to speak. She had Pepper's notes in front of her and she'd all but memorized the words she was supposed to say, but it was the question and answer part of the process that was putting her on edge. Tony had told her if she changed her mind to give him a signal and he'd take over for her, but she knew it would be better to get it all done and over with now rather than later when she wasn't prepared.

She'd been so lost in her own thoughts, she'd tuned out the sounds around her, so it wasn't until she saw Tony motioning for her to stand behind the podium that she realized it was her turn to speak. Fixing a smile on her face, she walked to the mic and looked out at the sea of faces anxiously waiting to hear what she had to say.

"Good afternoon," she began as she laid her note cards down on the podium before her. "Thank you all for coming here today. I'd first like to thank Secretary Ross for petitioning the UN on my behalf. I've spent the past year reflecting on my life, and in hindsight, I realize that I should have gone to the authorities with the evidence of the corruption that I'd uncovered instead of taking on the mantle of vigilantism. I'm grateful for the opportunity to turn my life around and use my abilities to help keep not only New York, but the entire world safe from those that would try to do it harm. I deeply regret the pain and suffering that I may have caused in my quest for vengeance, and I vow that from this moment on, I will only use my abilities to defend and avenge those that fall victim to the evil machinations inflicted upon them by corrupt individuals and groups both on Earth and from other Realms of the universe."

She paused for a moment to flip her cards and to take a breath. So far everyone had been listening to her attentively, and she felt as though she was back in school giving a speech in front of the student body. Steeling her nerves, she continued.

"In accordance with my early release, I will be closely monitored by Captain Rogers who will be filing detailed reports to the UN on a regular basis concerning my acclimation back into society as well as my actions as they pertain to the use of my abilities." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she began to smile. "I want to be someone the public can look upon with pride. I want to help those in need. I want to show the world that they can depend on me to be there when they need me. I want to be a role model for the younger generations. But I can admit that I'll need help, and that's why I'll be working with some of the greatest heroes the earth has ever seen." She extended her arm to draw attention to the line of superheroes to her left. "The men and women standing up here with me today have graciously agreed to take me under their wing, and with the support of the general public, I have no doubt that I will succeed in my endeavors. Thank you."

The crowd didn't wait for her to announce that she would be taking questions, but she'd been prepared for that. Tony had shown her pictures of the reporters she could call on first, so she quickly scanned the crowd and looked for someone she hoped she could trust. Before she could point out someone, a petite blonde in the front row began speaking.

"Ms. YLN," Christine Everhart said with a wicked smile on her face. "Would you care to address the rumors that you and Captain Rogers are having a torrid affair?"

Tony was ready to jump in and save her, but YN held up a hand and began staring down the snarky reporter. She allowed the electric current within her rise to the surface enough to turn her eyes blue before she began speaking.

"Ms. Everhart, right?" she asked, just to goad the woman. "I don't care what you say about me, but I refuse to allow you to besmirch the good name of Steve Rogers while I'm around."

"You haven't answered my question," Christine reminded her with a smirk, completely unfazed by the impending threat that Volt posed.

YN glanced over at Tony who gave her a quick shake of his head before turning to look at Steve. She could see the anger radiating off of him and she wasn't surprised when Bucky subtly moved in front of Steve just in case the super soldier decided to let his righteous anger have free reign.

"You're right," YN said as her eyes returned to the original color. "It won't be a secret for too long, so I might as well let the cat out of the bag. Steve and I are engaged, but don't expect an invitation to the wedding."

YN heard Ross began to curse just before the room erupted in a cacophony of questions. Ignoring them all, she left the podium and walked straight to Steve. Holding out a hand, she waited for him to take it before giving him a smile and walking out of the press conference. Her new life may be a lot of things, but boring wasn't going to be one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Thank you for reading the final part of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it! I actually wrote two different Epilogues because I couldn’t decide exactly how to end this story. . .but then I realized I like them both so I combined them into one super long Epilogue! Did you enjoy Steve’s proposal? I really wanted to bring back that snarky attitude the Reader had in the first few parts, and I figured after a year, she and Steve would be comfortable enough with each other to playfully bicker and argue. What did you think of the press conference? Don’t you just hate Christine Everhart? Our Reader got the final word, though - plus she set the scene for what her tenure with the Avengers will be like! Thank you again for embarking on this journey with me! I’ve loved writing every part of this story and reading all of your feedback and theories! I look forward to your comments!_

**Author's Note:**

> _Thank you for reading Part 1 of this story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  It's been a while since I've written a canon story for Steve, and I felt like he was being neglected. . . I've had this idea swimming around in my head since May of last year, so it feels good to finally get it written.  What do you think of the dynamic between the Reader and Steve so far?  What did you think of her transformation at the end?  Who do you think she is?  I look forward to your comments!_


End file.
